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| Robert Schumann in 1839, the year before is marriage to Clara. |
Robert Schumann wrote his sprawling Fantasy for Piano Op. 17
in 1836 out of longing Clara Wieck, whose father, Friedrich, furiously opposed his
intentions, no matter how honorable they might have been. Robert was 26 that
year. Clara was 17.
What some guys won’t do to get laid.
The message must have gotten through, however, because despite
an enforced separation that included several concert tours, Clara married Robert
in 1840 (at the respectable age of 21) and bore him half a dozen children.
The Fantasy, performed with passion and steely control by
Rollin Wilbur, was just one of many rich pleasures to be had at last weekend’s
dramatico-musical presentation by the Fine Art Music Company. Titled “War of
the Romantics ― Part 1,” the program focused on the first generation that
musical movement ― the Schumanns, Liszt,
Chopin ― with Beethoven included as their spiritual precursor and Brahms given
the last word as their successor.
The issue at stake in the war was the legitimacy ― even the
possibility ― of program music, with Liszt on one side, Schumann and Brahms on
the other, and Chopin somewhere uncomfortably in the middle, sneaking messages into his music that he then kept to himself. If the dispute seems pointless today, it was
no more so than the one that led to, say, the First World War, and it destroyed
far fewer lives.
It also left us with some extraordinary music.
Kasia Salwinski was riveting in Chopin’s B-flat Scherzo Op.
31 and Liszt’s Valee d’Obermann (whose program, I must confess, added nothing to
my enjoyment of understanding of the score.) She was more physically involved with
the music than I ever remember seeing her, and in a way that has nothing to do with
a performer’s trick of “selling” a piece. It seemed to take possession of her, although,
being a perfectionist and a wholly modest person, she told me afterward she wasn’t
fully satisfied with her outing in the Chopin.
Adelya Shagadulina brought an ethereal touch to the first
movement of Beethoven’s Spring Sonata (for violin) and Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestück
(for viola). We were also treated to Brahms’s own arrangement for piano four hands,
of the third movement of his Third Symphony and the second movement of his
Piano Concerto No. 2. The latter is a favorite of mine, with one special moment
I always listen for.
I could have done with less of Robert Edwin, who narrated
the proceedings (reading from a script by playwright Ella Remmings) as a
fictitious critic named Gerhard Denhoff. He was especially intrusive in the first
half, when he repeatedly interrupted the music to make some point, then browbeat
the musicians into starting over.
On the other hand, my companion for the afternoon, who hearing
much of the music for the first time, told me she was grateful for the context ―
and gossip ― he provided.
He was also a pleasant surprise as a singer in Robert Schumann’s
brief “Dedication.” In a clever turn,
the piece was repeated twice in arrangements for piano solo (by Liszt) and for
violin and piano (by Leopold Auer).
The program was presented Jan. 26 at Ivy Hall in Philadelphia
and repeated Jan. 27 at the Ethical Society Jan. 27. I saw it at the Ethical
Society, sitting in the largest crowd I have ever seen attend a Fine Arts Music program. Congratulations all around.
The next program in the series will be held at the end of
March.
