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Love? Homage to Clara Schumann / Yaara Tal

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Aug 09, 2019

Pianist Yaara Tal celebrates with her new album "Love? Homage to Clara Schumann" the 200th birthday (September 13th 2019) of the composer and piano virtuoso Clara Schumann (1819 – 1896). Clara Schumann was one of the most important musicians of the 19th century. In her honor, Yaara Tal recorded with her musician friends works by Clara Schumann, Theodor Kirchner (1823-1903), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) and Julie von Webenau (1813-1887).

Among the piano works are Trois Romances op. 11 by Clara Schumann, which she had dedicated to her fiance Robert Schumann in 1839. Musically as well as personally Robert and Clara Schumann were the most harmonious of couples. The genesis of Trois Romances was accompanied by a lively exchange of ideas between the couple. Deep feelings of love, affection and friendship resonate with these romances, but also with the selected solo piano works by Theodor Kirchner and Julie von Webenau. L'Adieu et le Retour op. 25. Morceaux de Fantaisie by the forgotten composer Julie von Webenau appear as a world premiere recording on this album. Julie von Webenau was twenty-two years old when Robert Schumann met her and her teacher, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. She began to correspond with Schumann, initially sending him some studies and enclosing with them a letter to Clara Wieck, whose triumphant appearances in Vienna she had heard about. She proved uncommonly sympathetic to Robert Schumann. Indeed, he even spoke of love and passion on her part in a letter to Clara Schumann. L'Adieu et le Retour op. 25 is a work that Julie von Webenau dedicated to Robert Schumann. Also Clara Schumann received many dedications from her contemporaries in the course of her career, but only the dedications from Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Theodor Kirchner fell into a different category. The good friend Theodor Kirchner, who had briefly been Robert Schumann's student at the Leipzig Conservatory and then piano partner of Clara Schumann, dedicated his Op. 9 to Clara in 1859, from which three Preludes appear on this album. The three pieces chosen by Yaara Tal – nos. 10, 11 and 13 – are genuine character-pieces. Clara told their composer that they reminded her of her husband. Another connected work to the family Schumann is Alt-Rhapsodie by Johannes Brahms. This piece was however especially connected with Julie Schumann, the third daugther of the couple. Brahm's composition on a fragment from Goethe’s “Harzreise im Winter” op. 53 seems to be related to Brahms' disappointed love for Julie Schumann.

Yaara Tal was keen to lighten the distinctly sombre mood of the original piece and suggested an arrangement for tenor, female choir and piano. Thus, she teamed with the tenor Julian Prégardien, the women's choir of Bayerischer Rundfunk conducted by Yuval Weinberg. This arrangement forms the basis of the album and appears as a world premiere recording as well. On the album Yaara Tal also plays together with her longtime piano duo partner Andreas Groethuysen. The outstanding piano duo has recorded the "Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann" for four-hand piano, which Brahms also dedicated to Julie Schumann in 1861.

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Love? Homage to Clara Schumann / Yaara Tal
Sony Masterworks Aug 2019
CD
$11.98

A Musical Journey - Switzerland: A Musical Visit To The Canton Of Ticino

Naxos AudioVisual

DVD

$13.99 Nov 13, 2012

The Places
The Canton of Ticino (German Tessin) is the only Swiss canton to have Italian as its official language. It is bounded on three sides by Italy and boasts spectacular mountain scenery, with waterfalls, rivers and lakes. The capital of the canton is now Bellinzona, but was earlier shared with Locarno and Lugano. A feature of the landscape lies in the great lakes that are within its territory, including part of Lago Maggiore, into which the Ticino and Maggia flow.

The Music
Robert Schumann was born in 1810 in Saxony, studied in Leipzig, lived in Dresden and, in 1850 moved to Düsseldorf as director of music to the city. He died in 1856, after a severe mental breakdown, from which he never recovered. In 1840, in spite of the objections of her father, he married the young pianist Clara Wieck, daughter of his former teacher. It was particularly after this marriage that he turned his attention to larger scale compositions, of which his Piano Concerto is an example, inspired by his wife. The other work heard here, the Intermezzi, Op. 4, dates from an earlier period, devoted in particular to the composition of shorter piano pieces, when a career as a pianist still seemed possible for him.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 51 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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A Musical Journey - Switzerland: A Musical Visit To The Canton Of Ticino
Naxos AudioVisual Nov 2012
DVD
$13.99

Frauenliebe Und Lebe
CBS Masterworks Apr 2007
CD
$17.99

Schumann: Davidsbundlertanze, Etc / Murray Perahia
Sony Masterworks Aug 2004
CD
$11.98

Schumann: Greatest Hits
Sony Masterworks Feb 2010
CD
$11.98

Schumann: Cello Concerto, Etc / Schwabe, Vogt, Royal Northern Sinfonia

Naxos

$19.99 May 11, 2018

Schumann’s love of the cello, which developed when he learned the instrument as a young man, is expressed most fully in his ‘Cello Concerto in A minor.’ It is a work marked by freshness of spirit and singing lyricism and stands as a rich example of mid-19th-century Romanticism. The series of characterful small pieces that include ‘Funf Stucke im Volkston’ reveals Schumann’s joy in the cello’s unique lyrical capabilities. The ‘Drei Romanzen’ and the ‘Intermezzo’ from the ‘F-A-E Sonata’ are presented here in new arrangements for cello and piano by Gabriel Schwabe. Gabriel Schwabe has established himself among the leading cellists of his generation. He is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann and the Concours Rostropovich in Paris. As a soloist he has worked with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Malmo and Norrkoping Symphony Orchestras and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. He plays a rare Italian instrument made in Brescia (c. 1600).

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REVIEW:

With just the necessary amount of vibrato, Gabriel Schwabe's cello, dating from around 1600, sings eloquently for him. The score of the concerto’s central section contains much sadness; without any undue haste, he generates an appropriate sense of triumphant brilliance as the work ends.

Schwabe and pianist Nicholas Rimmer give a particularly fast and vibrant account of the Allegro, in the Adagio and Allegro. It is a similarly outgoing performance of the Fantasiestucke that acts as a foil to the moments of beauty in the Three Romances; the five Volkston vividly characterised and contrasted, while the arrangement of the Intermezzo has simply taken the solo part down by an octave.

The catalogue is certainly not short of recordings of the Concerto, but this coupling is unusual and most enjoyable.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

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Schumann: Cello Concerto, Etc / Schwabe, Vogt, Royal Northern Sinfonia
Naxos May 2018
CD
$19.99

Complete Trio Works
Kontrapunkt Aug 1993
CD
$41.99

Schumann: Carnaval; Davidsbundlertanze; Papillons / Giltburg

Naxos

$19.99 Feb 10, 2015

The three works on this recording are collections of short pieces, strung together and forming a cohesive whole—a form which Schumann himself invented, developed and brought to perfection. Davidsbündlertänze (Dances of the League of David) was written after Schumann’s engagement to Clara Wieck, to whom he wrote, ‘If I have ever been happy at the piano, it was when I was composing these.’ Papillons (Butterflies) is the work of a youthful, unfettered imagination, and Carnaval is one of his most popular pieces, a display of both technique and emotion. Boris Giltburg, who took first prize at the 2013 Queen Elisabeth Competition, is one of today’s most exciting young pianists, lauded for his ‘massive and engulfing technique, supporting interpretations that glow with warmth and poetic commitment’ (Gramophone).

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Schumann: Carnaval; Davidsbundlertanze; Papillons / Giltburg
Naxos Feb 2015
CD
$19.99

Schumann: Scenes From Childhood
Sony Masterworks Feb 1994
CD
$11.98

Complete Duo Works
Kontrapunkt Jan 1991
CD
$22.99

Schumann: Complete Works For Violin And Orchestra / Wallin, Beermann
BIS Jun 2011
SACD
$21.99

Schumann: Piano Trios, Vol. 1 / Kungsbacka Piano Trio

BIS

SACD

$10.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 50% Feb 07, 2020

It was in 1842, his ‘year of chamber music’ that Robert Schumann took on the combination of violin, cello and piano for the first time. He seems to have decided against releasing the resulting Fantasiestücke as a fully-fledged piano trio, however, but later returned to the work, revising it for publication in 1850. The model here is not the large-scale, quasi-symphonic trios of Beethoven or Schubert – instead Haydn’s characteristic trio textures spring to mind, especially in the first two movements where the cello largely follows the piano’s left-hand bass line. By the time the Fantasiestücke was published, Schumann had already written two ‘proper’ piano trios, No. 1 in D minor and No. 2 in F major. According to the composer the second of these ‘makes a friendlier and more immediate impression’ but it is in fact the D minor trio that has long been the more popular: passionate, mainly extrovert and bursting with fine thematic material it is the easiest to grasp on one hearing. Both works are filled to capacity with imitative writing, sometimes conspicuously so but often subtly as if on a subconscious level – an aspect that the members of the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, with more than 20 years of playing together, are able to make the most of.

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Schumann: Piano Trios, Vol. 1 / Kungsbacka Piano Trio
BIS Feb 2020
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Mozart: Trio Kegelstatt and Clarinet Trios by Stiehl, Triebe

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 Jul 17, 2026

Music for clarinet, viola, and piano in the first half of the nineteenth century occupies a distinctive but relatively rare corner of the chamber repertoire. While the Classical period had established mixed ensembles involving winds, strings, and piano-most famously in Mozart and Beethoven-the exact combination of clarinet, viola, and piano did not yet become standardized. Instead, composers of the early Romantic era approached this grouping with flexibility, often through ad hoc works, alternative scorings, or arrangements shaped by available performers. This period was marked by expanding expressive ambitions and rapid developments in instrument design. The clarinet gained a wider range and greater agility, the viola benefited from improved projection and a more soloistic role, and the piano evolved into a powerful yet nuanced partner. Together, these instruments offered composers a rich palette of timbres: the clarinet's lyrical warmth, the viola's dark middle register, and the piano's harmonic breadth. This new recording starts off with the first work written for the combination of clarinet, viola and piano: the famous Kegelstatt Trio by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Following are works by Johann Stiehl (1800-1872), Josef Triebensee (1772-1846) and Robert Schumann (1810-1856), whose Marchenerzahlungen is the embodiment of Romantic expression and storytelling. Played by Italian clarinetist Luigi Magistrelli, Matteo Fedeli and Carlo Balzaretti. Magistrelli made numerous recordings for Brilliant Classics with works by C.P.E. Bach (95307), Giuliani (95541), Kummer (94472), Archduke Rudolph (94952), Rebay (94171) and Fuchs (96305). 'Luigi Magistrelli is a skilled artist, with the fingers and the enthusiasm for Weber.' Gramophone.

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Mozart: Trio Kegelstatt and Clarinet Trios by Stiehl, Triebe
Brilliant Classics Jul 2026
CD
$12.99

Mix & Match

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SCHUMANN, R.: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 (Berlin Philharmonic,
IDIS May 2008
CD
~~$16.99~~ $8.49

Complete Works For Choir A Cap
Kontrapunkt Jan 1991
CD
$22.99

Schumann: String Quartets
Thorofon Jul 2009
CD
$24.99

Schumann, Schubert: Fantasies / Murray Perahia

CBS Masterworks

$17.99 Dec 23, 2009

"Urgently eloquent." -- Gramophone [4/1987]

"Concentrated expressive intensity." -- Gramophone [11/1990]

"The Wanderer Fantasy is one of Schubert's most striking architectural achievements, and Perahia's intellectually rewarding account of it offers a vivid portrayal of the music's constantly evolving thematic structure." -- Gramophone [10/1995]

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Schumann, Schubert: Fantasies / Murray Perahia
CBS Masterworks Dec 2009
CD
$17.99

El Bohemio / Thibaut Garcia

ERATO

$17.49 Aug 30, 2024

Thibaut Garcia pays tribute with El Bohemio to the Paraguayan guitar virtuoso and composer Agustín Barrios (1885-1944). As Garcia explains, "Barrios is an essential composer in the guitarist's repertoire. His music can be described as a skilful mix of South American popular music - inspired by the jungles of Paraguay - and the Romanticism of Chopin and Schumann, composers he idolised." El Bohemio duly complements 16 varied works by Barrios himself with three of his transcriptions of famous pieces by Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven. In addition, the album includes readings of two of Barrios's poems: 'Bohemio', which lends the album it's name, portrays the composer as a wandering troubadour; 'Profesión de fé' (Profession of faith) honours the Guarani, the indigenous people of Paraquay.

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El Bohemio / Thibaut Garcia
ERATO Aug 2024
CD
$17.49

Solitude - Songs of Schubert, C. & R. Schumann, Wolf et al. / Konradi, Cosmos Quartet

Berlin Classics

$19.79 ~~$21.99~~ Save 10% May 17, 2024

In her new album "Solitude," soprano Katharina Konradi embarks on a musical journey to explore solitude. On this journey, she is accompanied by poets and composers from different time periods. The Cosmos Quartet from Barcelona joins her on her journey. Art songs by composers such as Robert and Clara Schumann, Franz Schubert, and Hugo Wolf, as well as folk songs and French chansons, are waypoints on this journey on which they explore the various facets of solitude together. Miniatures for solo soprano by the Hungarian-French composer György Kurtág serve as transitional elements, providing subtle and sophisticated coherence. Among the special rarities of the recording are the two Catalan songs by the violinist, composer, and conductor Eduard Toldrà.

The soprano, born in Kyrgyzstan, captivates audiences and critics alike with her vocal brilliance and cultivated emotional depth. The Cosmos Quartet matches her with its honest elegance and compelling expressiveness. Although the Cosmos Quartet and Katharina Konradi only met at the beginning of rehearsals for "Solitude," a very special magic immediately revealed itself, inherent in the combination of Katharina Konradi's voice and the Cosmos String Quartet. "String quartet and voice blend incredibly well together – even though the four instruments already form a perfect sonic structure on their own. I always enjoy being surrounded by so many different colors while singing," describes Katharina Konradi about the collaboration.

The result of this collaboration and shared journey is an album characterized by emotionality, a variety of moods, and the highest musicality. It invites one to linger, to listen closely, to find tranquility in the beauty of music, and to draw strength from it.

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Solitude - Songs of Schubert, C. & R. Schumann, Wolf et al. / Konradi, Cosmos Quartet
Berlin Classics May 2024
CD
~~$21.99~~ $19.79

Recent Favorite

Schumann: Songs Of Love & Loss / Sarah Connolly

Chandos

$10.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 50% Oct 28, 2008

Connolly’s is a distinguished addition to the catalogue.

In many respects Schumann is the archetype of the romantic artist: deeply influenced by literature, committed to powerfully intense emotions, creatively aware of the virtuosity of performers. He was himself a fine pianist, and the first twenty-three of his published compositions were for his own instrument. He then went on to match this achievement in the field of solo song, in which regard he became the true inheritor of Schubert’s mantle.

Another important aspect of Schumann’s creative nature was his fondness for creating large-scale compositions out of sequences of miniatures. He developed this trend in piano works such as Carnaval and Kreisleriana, and continued it in the vocal song-cycles, including for example Frauenliebe und -leben and the two groups of songs under the title Liederkreis (Opp. 24, 39).

All of these issues are germane to this collection of songs presented by Sarah Connolly with the expert support of Eugene Asti. Under the collective title 'Songs of Love and Loss', this Schumann programme includes two cycles from the great song year of 1840, the Liederkreis and Frauenliebe und –Leben. The remaining songs come from later in the composer’s life: the collection entitled Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart Op.135, the beautiful short 'Requiem' from Op.90 and 'Mein schöner Stern!' Op.101 No.4. These show no falling-off in quality, despite the commonly-held view that his encroaching final illness undermined the quality of the composer’s later compositions.

There are abundant alternative performances of Frauenliebe und –Leben and the Liederkreis, but Sarah Connolly brings a distinguished addition to the catalogue. While many great artists have brought their insights to the former, a personal favourite is the 1996 Deutsche Grammophon disc by Anne-Sophie von Otter with Bengt Forsberg (445 881 2), while in the Op. 39 Liederkreis there is always the issue of whether a man’s voice is better. Among notable interpretations is that of Bryn Terfel, for instance, with Malcolm Martineau (again DG, 447 042 2). Therefore the excellent Sarah Connolly does not become an instant top recommendation, but she does have both the technique and the insight to do full justice to these great songs.

In Frauenliebe und –leben Connolly and Asti tend towards slower tempi, perhaps missing some degree of ardour, though a real highlight of their performance is 'Du Ring an meinem Finger', in which there is much intensity. The balance between voice and piano is nicely achieved by both the artists and the Chandos engineers, while the recording venue, Potton Hall in Suffolk, is a tried and tested acoustic well suited to chamber music and songs.

Although Connolly is not a native German speaker, her treatment of the language is assured and the treatment of the text abounds in all the subtleties the songs have to offer, with a vocal timbre that is rich and nicely in focus. The collaboration of the artists seems even better in the lesser-known songs. For instance Requiem moves to a convincing climax after a beautifully chaste opening phase, and the somewhat austere songs on poems attributed to Mary Queen of Scots have an intensity that is all their own. Perhaps her preference for slower tempi pays its strongest dividends here.

-- Terry Barfoot, MusicWeb International

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Schumann: Songs Of Love & Loss / Sarah Connolly
Chandos Oct 2008
CD
~~$21.99~~ $10.99