Schumann, R.: Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13 / Fantasie In C Major, Op. 17

Bernd Glemser

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Cat No: 8557673

Release Date: 09 January 2004

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313267323

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SCHUMANN, R.

Description
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)Symphonic Etudes Phantasie in C majorRobert Schumann is in many ways typical of the age inwhich he lived, combining in his music a number of theprincipal characteristics of Romanticism, as he did in hislife. Born in Zwickau in 1810, the son of a bookseller,publisher and writer, he showed an early interest inliterature and was to make a name for himself in lateryears as a writer and as editor of the Neue Zeitschrift f??rMusik, a journal launched in 1834. His father encouragedhis literary and musical interests and at one time thoughtof sending him to study with Weber, a proposal that wasabandoned with the death of the latter, closely followedby the death of Schumann's father.Schumann's career now followed a moreconventional course. In 1828 he entered the University ofLeipzig, where his attention to his studies was asintermittent as it was to be the following year atHeidelberg. He was eventually able to persuade hismother and guardian that he should be allowed to studymusic under the well- known piano teacher FriedrichWieck, whose own energies had been directed with someintensity towards the training of his own daughter Clara,a pianist of prodigious early talent. Schumann'sambitions as a pianist, however, were frustrated by aweakness in the fingers, whatever its true cause, and hisother musical studies had, at the very least, lackedapplication. Nevertheless in the 1830s he wrote a greatdeal of music for the piano, often in the form of shorter,genre pieces, with some extra-musical literary orautobiographical association. There was an affair withone of Wieck's pupils, later broken off, but by 1835 hehad begun to turn his attention to Clara Wieck, nine yearshis junior. Wieck had good reason to object to the liaison.His daughter had a career before her as a concertperformer and Schumann had shown signs of instabilityof character, whatever his abilities as a composer mightbe. Matters were taken to an extreme when resort washad to litigation, in order to prevent what Wieck saw as adisastrous marriage.It was not until 1840 that Schumann was eventuallyable to marry Clara, after her father's legal attempts tooppose the match had finally failed. The couple marriedin September, remaining first in Leipzig, althoughjourneys took place for concert appearances by Clara,generally accompanied by her husband, whose positionwas of lesser distinction. In 1844 they moved to Dresden,where it seemed that Schumann might recover from thebouts of depression that he had suffered in the earlierdays of marriage. Here again no official position seemedto offer itself and it was only in 1849 that the prospect ofemployment arose, this time in D??sseldorf, whereSchumann took up his position as director of music in1850.Mendelssohn had enjoyed an uneasy relationshipwith the D??sseldorf authorities, and Schumann, muchless skilled in administration and conducting, provedeven less able to cope with the difficulties that arose. Thepressures on him led to a comp
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