Classical Music

Classical Music

Schumann�s compositional plans in 1840 included not only piano works or, as is generally assumed, lieder, but also encompassed an opera project for which a libretto was nearly completed. Perhaps the most yearning moment in Schumann�s adult life was his wedding day, on which he was finally to be united with his beloved bride Clara Wieck after so much sadness and many painful conflicts - he wanted to celebrate by presenting this song cycle to his beloved as a gift. Songs as pearls, not only twelve as in the Eichendorff cycle or nine as are found in Heines's "Liederkreis," but 26 songs, like a long necklace. Following engagements on the opera stages of Wurzburg, Mannheim and Frankfurt, soprano Diana Damrau's meteoric international career took off with performances in Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and New York. A highly sought-after lied and concert singer, she makes regular appearances at the Kissinger Sommer, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, as well as the Munich and Salzburg Festivals. Argentinean baritone Ivan Paley studied in Buenos Aires and the Opera Department of Miami University and then began his career as a concert and opera singer. Since moving to Vienna he has focused on German lied and collaborates with several renowned pianists. Since completing his piano studies, Stephan Matthias Lademann has focused on piano accompaniment and gained extensive experience accompanying master singers such as Birgit Nilsson, Sylvia Geszty, Julia Hamari, and of course the two vocalists on this release.

As far as I know, this release is the only one to feature Sena Jurinac singing Lieder for voice adn piano. Sena Jurinac did make recordings of other songs, but without piano accompaniment: Ottorino Respighi's Il Tramonto with the Barylli Quartet and the Vier Letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss, recorded live with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Fritz Busch in 1951. These recordings later appeared in the French References series released by the label EMI.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Cellist Gautier Capu�on is the constant presence in this programme of music by Robert Schumann. In the Cello Concerto his partners are Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and in a selection of chamber works his violinist brother Renaud and the pianist Martha Argerich. "Bernard Haitink is a wonderfully inspiring guide," says Gautier, "and Martha Argerich carries me along on the composer's waves of romanticism and passion." - Universally recognised as the finest cellist of his generation, Gautier Capu�on has a firm reputation as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He is a regular performer with the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony, and at festivals such as Verbier and Lugano, and has won several awards at the ECHOS and the Victoires de la Musique.

THE ROYAL EDITION - SCHUMANN:

Doric String Quartet
Alex Redington violin
Jonathan Stone violin
Simon Tandree viola
John Myerscough cello
Recorded in:
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, 9-11 February 2011

The three string quartets, Op. 41 make up Schumann’s only published contribution to the genre. They were completed during a period of intense creative activity in 1842. In February, Schumann noted in his diary that he was having ‘continual quartet thoughts’. In April and May, he devoted himself to studying the quartets by Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart; in early June, the first two quartets were completed, and the third followed soon after in July that same year.

Brimming with the canons with which Schumann was so taken, as well as his characteristic turn of melody, these works all display in full the spirit that one would expect from this most romantic of romantic composers.

Schumann arranged for the first, private, performance of the quartets to take place on 13 September 1842, as a present for his wife, Clara, on her twenty-third birthday. Clara, always supportive of her husband’s efforts, praised them as ‘lucid, finely worked, and always in quartet idiom’. The esteemed theorist and composer Moritz Hauptmann said: ‘His [Schumann’s] first, which delighted me immensely, made me marvel at his talent… it is cleverly conceived and held together, and a great deal of it is very beautiful.’

The Doric String Quartet, exclusive Chandos artists are among the most impressive young quartets on the classical music scene today. They regularly perform at major festivals and venues throughout the UK as well as across continental Europe, Asia, and the US.

Classical Music

This CD is a delightful overview of the pieces and little melodies that Schumann produced with and for his girls and brings to life the spirit of the Schumann household.