Love Triangle
Conductor: Stilian Kirov, Music Director
Date and Time: January 18, 2020 - 8:00pm
A renowned pianist, Clara Wieck Schumann was only 13 when she began writing the Concerto in A minor and Brahms’ Symphony No 4 is considered as one of the greatest symphonies ever written. Following Robert Schumann’s untimely death, Clara and Johannes became very close. Just how close remains a secret to this day.
Concert Repertoire:
Robert Schumann:Overture, Scherzo, and Finale, Op. 52
Clara Schumann:Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7
Fei Fei Dong, piano
Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Concert will be performed at
Performing at Rutgers-Camden
Center for the Arts
Program Notes
The complex relationship among Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms has provided a great deal of material for people to ponder over the years. Even today, many of the details of this “love triangle” are still unknown. What is clear is that all three of these gifted composers shared a deep respect, admiration and affection for each other. The life of an artist as talented as these three is often one of loneliness. The deep longing of humans to be understood is seldom fulfilled for those who are exceptionally gifted. In their relationship, the Schumanns and Brahms were able to share in the joys and burdens of life as composers and musicians.
Robert Schumann
Born: 8 June, 1810, Zwickau, Germany
Died: 29 July, 1856, Endenich, Bonn, Germany
The Overture, Scherzo and Finale was one of the first symphonic works composed by Schumann. In 1841, he was inspired to take on orchestral writing after hearing a performance of Schubert’s 9th Symphony conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. Prior to this time, Schumann had composed almost exclusively for his instrument, the piano. With encouragement from his wife Clara (“Your imagination and your spirit are too great for the weak piano”, she told him), Schumann very quickly composed both his Symphony No. 1 and this work, which has been called his second symphony. Schumann himself referred to it as a Sinfonietta, Suite and Symphony No. 2 before settling on the title “Overture, Scherzo and Finale”.
This piece is essentially a symphony without a slow movement. A brief, slow introduction in E Minor gives a preview of themes that will be expanded in the quicker section of the Overture, which is in the key of E Major. This shift from minor to major, along with the dramatic pauses and suspense of the opening, will remind the listener of opera overtures. The lilting Scherzo movement uses a repetitive rhythm that is only broken up by the Trio section. Both the Scherzo and Trio are repeated before Schumann subtly shifts the music back to a theme from the Overture. The Finale begins with the strings playing a fugatto, or short fugue, on the first theme. This is followed by a more lyrical melody. These two themes are developed in a more complex way than the thematic material in the two previous movements. The grand coda at the end of this movement leaves the listener with a satisfying finish to this compact yet artfully composed work.
Clara Schumann
Born: 13 September, 1819, Leipzig, Germany
Died: 20 May, 1896, Frankfurt, Germany
The accomplishments of Clara Schumann are truly extraordinary, especially considering the limitations placed on women of her time. Trained under the exacting tutelage of her father, Friedrich Wieck, Clara quickly became a piano virtuoso and was touring by the age of eleven. Her first compositions were also completed around the same time. When she married her father’s pupil Robert Schumann, she managed to continue her performing career and eventually became the sole breadwinner for their family of ten. Later in her life, she became a professor at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where she was the only female faculty member.
The finale to Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor was begun at the tender age of fourteen and was originally intended as a one-movement work. Robert assisted her with the orchestration but Clara soon added the first two movements and orchestrated them herself. When she was 16, Clara gave the premiere performance under the baton of fellow composer Felix Mendelssohn.
All three movements of this concerto flow seamlessly into one another, giving the impression of the single movement work Clara had originally conceived. The weighty writing of this work is impressive for one so young and can be felt immediately in the opening bars. After a quick introduction by the orchestra, the piano takes the spotlight as it introduces the two main themes of the movement. The virtuosic writing for the piano showcases the full technical command Clara had of her instrument, with complex passage work and frequent octave doubling. The end of this movement is surprising in that the traditional cadenza (a virtuosic passage for the soloist alone) takes a sudden turn to Ab Major and becomes the opening of the second movement. This slow movement is an intimate and touching duet for piano and cello. Once again, the depth in musical expression is profound for a young teenager. Without pause, a trumpet fanfare rings in the final movement in a sort of rondo formation, where the main theme is repeated in between various contrasting sections. The influence of Chopin is most keenly felt in this movement, where Clara utilizes the Polonaise rhythm made so popular by her predecessor. The movement maintains a certain weight despite the flashy passages that bring this striking work to a close.
Johannes Brahms
Born: 7 May, 1833, Hamburg, Germany
Died: 3 April, 1897, Vienna, Austria
Brahms faced a great deal of criticism during his lifetime for continuing to utilize the musical forms of the past in his compositions. Wagner and his supporters adamantly claimed that Beethoven’s symphonic writing was the zenith of the symphonic form and that orchestral writing should take on new programmatic forms, rather than make what they felt would be a futile attempt to add to Beethoven’s work. Brahms himself felt the great weight of Beethoven’s genius and once said “You don't know what it means to the likes of us when we hear his [Beethoven’s] footsteps behind us”. After fourteen years of agonizing writing and revising, Brahms finally put aside his fears and published his first symphony. In less than ten years, Brahms completed four symphonies that proved Wagner wrong: there was more to be said through symphonic form and Brahms was the one able to continue Beethoven’s legacy, leaving future generations new inspiration for this powerful genre.
Symphony No. 4 in E Minor is one of the last compositions written by Brahms and demonstrates his mature style, one that is unafraid of his individuality and the unique voice he brings to symphonic writing. The complexity and depth of this work have long been appreciated. Music critic Eduard Hanslick, who was a contemporary of Brahms, wrote that "it is like a dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back." The genius of this work is that regardless of how well we understand the intricate compositional devices used by Brahms, his music is able to reach our emotions and speak to our hearts. There is an intimacy and honesty in Brahms’s writing that captivates our imagination and brings us along on this moving symphonic journey.
The first movement sets out on this journey without any introduction. In spite of suggestions from friends, Brahms chose to begin immediately with the first theme. The sequence of falling and rising thirds has often been praised for its economy and expression. The rest of the movement follows in an almost unending stream of unfolding and development of this sequence of thirds. The lack of a clearly- defined recapitulation (return of the primary themes) led Arnold Schoenberg, the famous champion of twelve-tone music, to later cite this piece in his essay “Brahms the Progressive”.
In the second movement, Brahms lifts the listener out of the tragic-sounding first movement in E Minor into a more spacious and open E Major. The two main themes of this movement are presented without the typical development section but instead return after a brief transition. This structure reinforces a sense of stability much needed after the turbulent first movement.
The boisterous third movement embodies everything that a scherzo should be-- fast, playful, and light. However, Brahms makes several innovative changes to the standard form to serve his compositional style, while still maintaining the scherzo qualities. First, this scherzo is in 2/4 time instead of the usual 3/4 time. Brahms also uses a sonata form for this movement, where most scherzos would include a slower trio section in between two statements of the scherzo theme. This change to the form gives the listener a sense of relentless energy and drive throughout the movement.
The final movement of this Symphony has long been considered the capstone of Brahms’s symphonic writing. Brahms uses the passagalia, a musical form from the Baroque period, as the structure for this movement. As an avid student of Baroque masters, Brahms had long been fascinated with the passagalia and its continuous variations on a short theme. In a letter to Clara Schumann in 1877, Brahms wrote of this form: “If I could picture myself writing, or even conceiving, such a piece, I am certain that the extreme excitement and emotional tension would have driven me mad.”
As the subject of his variations, Brahms chose to use an excerpt from Bach’s cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (“For Thee, O Lord, I long”). As in the opening of the first movement, Brahms states his eight-bar theme without any introduction. The progression of thirty variations is nothing short of genius. With each variation Brahms reveals fresh insights and transforming perspectives on this dark and foreboding theme.
In some cases, it can take several generations before the artistic value of a composition is appreciated. However, the Fourth Symphony by Brahms was quickly recognized as a significant contribution to the music world. On the occasion of the first Berlin performance on February 1, 1886, Joseph Joachim expressed a sentiment that remains true for many of us today: “The downright gripping pull of the whole thing, the denseness of the concoction, the wonderfully convoluted growth of the motives, even more than the abundance and beauty of individual passages have really had a profound effect on me so that I almost believe that the E minor is my favourite among the four symphonies”.
Symphony in C program notes are written by Megan Carroll.