Schumann, Robert (1810 - 1856)

[AmpH]

Wonderful piano playing in this set....

[LeMartinPecheur]

Also the Dino Ciani set of the Novelettes, rare on record and really worth getting to know - some sublime Schumann.

gradus and other enthusiasts for the Novelettes: do you listen to them as a set, or pick one or two? Not so long ago I heard the complete set live - not an experience I (and many others in the audience) would be at all keen to repeat.

Yet most of the pieces sounded very pleasant on their own - though I'd make an exception for the last one, too many forced and repetitive climaxes at the end - but the whole seemed far less than the sum of its parts. Not enough contrast between the pieces seemed to be the main problem.

It could of course have been the performance but I don't think it was.

Comments??

[Roehre]

gradus and other enthusiasts for the Novelettes: do you listen to them as a set, or pick one or two? Not so long ago I heard the complete set live - not an experiance I (and many others in the audience) would be at all keen to repeat.

Yet most of the pieces sounded very pleasant on their own - though I'd make an exception for the last one, too many forced and repetitive climaxes at the end - but the whole seemed far less than the sum of its parts. Not enough contrast between the pieces seemed to be the main problem.

It could of course have been the performance but I don't think it was.

Comments??

I am afraid you might be right: it's the music of the Novelettes which -if the cycle is played completely- offers not enough diversity. There is hardly a slowish, relaxing point to be found. But I must add that getting to know the Novelettes bit by bit shows that these are great music nevertheless (possible with the already noted exception of the last one - one of the Schumann pieces which IMO would have been a candidate for revision. But Schumann thought otherwise....).

[John Shelton]

Andras Schiff, IMV, does wonders in finding variety and nuance of expression in the set http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andras-Schif...0&sr=1-2-spell

Just the three, but Sviatoslav Richter is never mechanical http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Alto/ALC1188

[John Shelton]

Please don't forget Catherine Collard's recordings for Lyrinx http://www.amazon.fr/Catherine-Colla...3384225&sr=1-1 (not so much the Apex disc).

Or indeed her Haydn http://www.amazon.fr/Int%C3%A9grale-...pd_sim_sbs_m_2

So sad she died young. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Collard

[Sir Velo]

Andras Schiff, IMV, does wonders in finding variety and nuance of expression in the set

Strange break of the Novelettes over two CDs. Unless Schiff takes some extreme tempi I can't see why it would be split over two discs, unless they are preserving the chronology of what appears to be live performances.

There are other alternatives for anyone wanting to obtain the complete set, however. Ronald Brautigam on a single CD with other rarities (including the Allegro in B minor.Drei Phantasiestucke; the late Gesang der Fruhe), offers fine performances of the Novelettes. Dino Ciani on a well regarded box set offers fine playing, well recorded, without ever suggesting he is entirely at home in the repertoire. Both of these pianists, by the way, take around 46 minutes.

[gradus]

May I go back to thoughts about Schumann and add this link for those who have not come across the essay before:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/39213888/LovingSchumann-Barthes

[John Shelton]

unless they are preserving the chronology of what appears to be live performances.

They are live performances, and that's the reason .

Le Sage is worth hearing, too, IMV.

[gurnemanz]

Please don't forget Catherine Collard's recordings for Lyrinx http://www.amazon.fr/Catherine-Colla...3384225&sr=1-1 (not so much the Apex disc).

Or indeed her Haydn http://www.amazon.fr/Int%C3%A9grale-...pd_sim_sbs_m_2

So sad she died young. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Collard

Collard on top form accompanies the contralto Nathalie Stutzmann in Op 39 Frauenliebe, Dichterliebe and others on this recommendable box.

[John Shelton]

Collard on top form accompanies the contralto Nathalie Stutzmann in Op 39 Frauenliebe, Dichterliebe and others on this recommendable box.

[Sir Velo]

They are live performances, and that's the reason .

.

Still irritating though on a CD.You would have thought some judicious editing could have got round it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Totally agree with Roehre about the late Schumann. I've been listening to those Widmann/Varjon Violin Sonatas again, and the Tetzlaffs/Andnes Piano Trios, and they really draw you in. Very nocturnal listening. I second my own recommendation!

Knowing what happened to poor Schumann in his last years can just as easily distort as illuminate your response to the last works. It's easy to see the 1st movement of the Violin Concerto as "obsessive" or melodically "jagged", but its tensions are wondrously resolved by one of his loveliest slow movements and an irresistibly catchy polonaise-finale! Again the 1st Violin Sonata combines a gravely beautiful melodic flow with some remarkably inventive and disruptive musical lines and structures..

If you've not got beyond Piano Quartet/Quintet in the chamber music, do explore, it's very rewarding.

[JFLL]

The composer, for me, who most engages with Schumann's later music is Heinz Holliger, and specifically with the destroyed 'cello / piano pieces.

I didn't know of those (thanks for the tip), but can I put in a word for Holliger's recording with Brendel of the Three Romances op. 94 for oboe & piano, from that golden age of Philips chamber recordings of thirty plus years ago? Like other Schumann chamber pieces, the Romances also seem to have been arranged for other instruments -- I seem to remember Isserlis doing them on cello, but I prefer the oboe version (despite being a lapsed cellist.)

[Thropplenoggin]

I came across an advert for this in this week's TLS:

More here.

May be of interest to - Schumannians? Schumannites? - lovers of Schumann.

[teamsaint]

I came across an advert for this in this week's TLS:

More here.

May be of interest to - Schumannians? Schumannites? - lovers of Schumann.

Its Schumannics .