The World of Robert Schumann
Sundays at 3:00 p.m.
May 23 - August 15
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann's birth on June 8, All Classical 88.7 KCME welcomes you to The World of Robert Schumann, hosted by John Tibbets.
This 13-week series explores Schumann's entire career from his student days to his celebrated marriage and artistic partnership with Clara Schumann. The World of Robert Schumann features interviews and performances from the top classical musicians of our time.
Join 88.7 KCME and John Tibbets on Sundays at 3:00 p.m., beginning May 23 for The World of Robert Schumann.
PROGRAM 1 | THE ROMANTIC APPRENTICESHIP: STUDENT DAYS, 1810-1830
Upbringing in Zwickau. Early conflicts between a career in law and music. Extended analyses of Schumann’s early piano music, including the Beethoven Variations and the Papillons, Opus 2, by conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch, pianists Claude Frank, Paul Badura-Skoda and Cyprian Katsaris. Commentary by historian Eric Sams and biographer Dr. Peter Ostwald.
PROGRAM 2 | FLORESTAN AND EUSEBIUS: A CASE STUDY IN DUAL PERSONALITY
Schumann creates alter egos to express his creative and personal conflicts and divisions. Analyses of the piano cycles Kreisleriana, Opus 16, and the Davidsbundler Tonze, Opus 6, by pianists Anton Kuerti, Charles Rosen, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Ivo Pogorelich, Vladimir Feltsman and Philippe Bianconi. Psychoanalytical commentary by biographer Dr. Peter Ostwald and Dr. Ronald Taylor.
PROGRAM 3 | THE COURTSHIP OF ROBERT SCHUMANN AND CLARA WIECK, 1935-1840
The celebrated love story runs into numerous difficulties, parental objections and legal tangles. Commentary by biographers Dr. Peter Ostwald and Dr. Nancy Reich; and musical analyses of Fantasie in C, Opus 17 by pianists Charles Rosen and Mary-Louise Boehm, and historian Eric Sams; and the Clara Variations by pianist Anton Kuerti.
PROGRAM 4 | CARNIVAL: A DANCE OF MASKS
Profile of “Biedermeier” Germany and the rise of popular dance music as a Romantic expression. The psychological, musical and metaphorical importance of the Carnival (Fasching) season to Schumann. Psychoanalytical analysis by biographer Dr. Peter Ostwald. Extended analysis of Carnaval, Opus 9 by pianist José Feghali and historian Professor Lawrence Kramer.
PROGRAM 5 | THE BAND OF DAVID
Robert Schumann was one of the leading figures in 19th century music criticism and journalism. In his own music magazine he proclaimed and supported a whole generation of Romantic composers, including Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, and Mendelssohn. And in his imagination, he gathered them all together in a mysterious league of musical revolutionaries he dubbed "The Band of David." Featured interviews include scholars Alan Walker, Leon Plantinga, Hugh Macdonald, Larry Todd, Eric Sams; critics Virgil Thomson, Jacques Barzun, Martin Bookspan; and musicians Leslie Howard and Charles Rosen.
PROGRAM 6 | THE ROMANTIC PIANO: A SYMPOSIUM OF PIANISTS
Schumann’s piano music is discussed and played by many eminent concert pianists, including Eugene Istomin, Joerg Demus, Peter Frankl, John Browning and György Sandor. Extended analyses of the Toccata, Opus 7, and Songs of the Dawn.
PROGRAM 7 | LOVE AND MARRIAGE: ART, CAREER AND FAMILY IN THE SCHUMANN HOUSELHOD, 1840-1850
Robert and Clara struggle to work and raise children in the new middle-class Germany. Marital tensions, family responsibilities and professional ambitions force Schumann to attempt the popular forms of the symphony, opera and oratorio. Discussion by biographers Dr. Nancy Reich and Dr. Peter Ostwald and conductors David Zinman and Leonard Slatkin. Analyses of the Piano Concerto in A Minor by André-Michel Schub and Mischa Dichter; and Paradise and the Peri by John Eliot Gardiner.
PROGRAM 8 | THE WORLD OF CHILDHOOD: THE CULT OF THE CHILD IN THE ROMANTIC AGE
Schumann’s music about childhood draws upon the traditions of folklore and the fairy tales of Grimm, Andersen and E.T.A. Hoffmann, and his experiences with his own children. Analyses of the Scenes from Childhood, Opus 15 and Album for the Young, Opus 68, by pianists Joerg Demus, Claude Frank, György Sandor, Constance Keene; and the Liederalbum für die Jügend by singer Elly Ameling. Special commentary by author/illustrator Maurice Sendak.
PROGRAM 9 | SCHUMANN AND HEINE: THE ROMANTIC IRONY
The poems of Heinrich Heine and the music of Robert Schumann were joined together in many of Schumann’s finest songs, including two of the greatest song cycles in music history, the Liederkreis, Opus 24 and Dichterliebe, Opus 48. The texts and the music bespeak what has been described as “The Romantic Irony,” i.e., the typically Romantic perception of the disparity between private dreams and ideals and worldly reality – and, in artistic terms, the uneasy and complex fusion of words and music. Song historians Rufus Hallmark and David Ferris, and Heine biographer Roger F. Cook, join distinguished art song/opera singer Thomas Hampson in a detailed examination of these songs and their texts.
PROGRAM 10 | THE CHAMBER MUSIC: A SYMPOSIUM OF PLAYERS
From “Hausmusik” to modern recording practices. Commentary and analyses of the Violin Sonatas, the three String Quartets, the three Trios, the Piano Quintet and the Piano Quartet by pianist Emanuel Ax, Paul Katz of the Cleveland String Quartet, members of The Juilliard String Quartet, members of the Tokyo String Quartet, violinists Peter Zazovsky and Christine Edinger, oboist Heinz Holliger, cellist Lynn Harrell and horn player Hermann Baumann.
PROGRAM 11 | THE HAUNTED FOREST: ROMANTICISM AND NATURE
The Romanticists responded to new opportunities and venues of travel in the early 19th century and produced in their music, poems, novels, and paintings, their sense of the glories and the mysteries of nature. Three works by Schumann are selected for commentary and analysis, the Waldscenen (Forest Scenes) for Piano; the song cycle, Liederkreis, Opus 39, to texts by the German poet Joseph von Eichendorff; and a choral work, Manfred, set to Lord Byron’s dramatic poem. Guest commentators include song historians Rufus Hallmark, Eric Sams and David Ferris, and musicians Elly Ameling and Dalton Baldwin.
PROGRAM 12 | BREAKDOWN: THE MADNESS OF ROBERT SCHUMANN
The Romantic fascination with madness and creativity: the suicidal plunge into the Rhine in 1854, and incarceration in the Endenich Asylum. Commentary by biographers Dr. Peter Ostwald, John Daverio, Alan Walker and Eric Sams; and scholars Margit McCorkle, John Macgregor and Albert Boime. Analyses of late works like the Cello Concerto by cellist Lynn Harrell, the Violin Concerto by violinist Thomas Zehetmaire, Manfred by conductor Gerd Albrecht and the Geister Variations by Peter Frankl and Anton Kuerti. New findings on the Endenich papers of Dr. Richarz by biographers Dr. Nancy Reich and Dr. John Daverio.
PROGRAM 13 | THE YOUNG EAGLE: THE ARRIVAL OF JOHANNES BRAHMS
Schumann discovers the young Brahms in 1853, and promotes his career. The controversies surrounding Brahms’ relationship with Clara Schumann are discussed by historian Styra Avins and biographers John Daverio and Dr. Nancy Reich. Analyses of Brahms’ Schumann Variations, the B-Major Piano Trio, the First Piano Concerto and the Four Serious Songs by historians Prof. Robert Winter and Dr. Nancy Reich and pianist Eugene Istomin.