Programme Details
We continue our project of Robert Schumann’s complete works for solo piano, exploring the intricate world of music’s visionary poet. Over two years, Academy pianists perform over seventeen hours of some of the greatest, and most original, piano music ever composed.
11AM
EINSAME BLUMEN
From Schumann’s much-loved ‘youthful’ masterpieces – Abegg Variations, Fantasie in C and Carnaval – to his later personal works, Joanna MacGregor introduces the range of music in today’s five recitals.
The first concert combines his late, rarely-played fantasy pieces with his tremendous love letter to Clara Wieck, the Fantasie in C
– as well as his later, mysterious Forest Scenes.
Drei Fantasiestucke Op 111
Waldszenen Op 82
Fantasie in C Op 17
Sherri Lun and Edward Harris-Brown piano
1PM
HARLEQUIN, PIERROT
Our second concert today opens with Schumann’s charming, playful Abegg Variations, composed while a student at Heidelberg. The tender Arabesque precedes his exuberant suite Carnaval: a masked revelry, full of codes and enigmas. Among the revellers are figures from Commedia dell’arte, as well as Schumann himself in the dual roles of Florestan and Eusebius, Clara Wieck (in the movement Chiarina), Paganini and Chopin.
Abegg Variations Op 1
Arabesque Op 18
Carnaval Op 9
Alex Wun and Arthur Kokerai piano
2.30PM
MELODRAMAS
A third concert, this time of absolute Schumann rarities. A dreamer and an idealist, Schumann instilled passion in his music to a degree seldom surpassed in the 19th century. Three Ballads of Declamation – with poetry by Friedrich Hebbel, Julius Seybt and Percy Shelley – mix high Arthurian romance with melodrama, as the pianist works alongside a narrator.
The richly romantic Andante and Variations Op.46 were written in 1843 for two pianos, one horn and two cellos, a unique line-up. Schumann wrote of these variations to a friend: ‘Their mood is very elegiac; I think I must have been very melancholy when I wrote them.’
Schön Hedwig Op 106
Ballade vom Heideknaben Op 122
Die Flüchtlinge Op 122
David Xia piano
Sarah Gabriel narrator
Andante and Variations Op 46
for two pianos, two cellos and horn
Sadra Mahadshidfar and Andrew Zhao piano
Peter Raistrick horn
Aria Posner and Emma Osterrieder cello
3.45PM
SOARING
Two of Schumann’s most iconic works embody our fourth concert. The eight movements of his early Fantasiestücke - full of humour, intensity and poetry, composed with endless imagination - were inspired by E.T.A Hoffmann. Etudes Symphoniques – a work of enormous complexity and experimentation - is a work of technical and timbral bravura.
Fantasiestücke Op 12
Etudes Symphoniques Op 13
Yiqiao Ou and Seth Schultheis piano
FOR CHILDREN
Our final concert of the day finishes with a complete performance of Schumann’s Album für der Jugend Op.68, composed in 1848 for his three daughters. Some of these pieces are extraordinarily famous – The Wild Hunter, The Happy Farmer – and the later ones in the set become more mature, poetically depicting the seasons and the passing of the year.
The 43 short pieces of this unique cycle are shared by Joanna MacGregor and five Academy pianists.
You may also like ...
-
Summer Piano Festival
![An image featuring Shostakovich, highlighted pink, and Schumann, highlighted turquoise with a film reel border]()
Piano, Multimedia, Film
Angela Burgess Recital Hall -
Summer Piano Festival
![An image featuring Shostakovich, highlighted pink, and Schumann, highlighted turquoise with a film reel border]()
Shostakovich: The Complete Preludes and Fugues
Duke's Hall -
Summer Piano Festival
![An image featuring Shostakovich, highlighted pink, and Schumann, highlighted turquoise with a film reel border]()
The Art of Transcription
David Josefowitz Recital Hall -
Summer Piano Festival
![An image featuring Shostakovich, highlighted pink, and Schumann, highlighted turquoise with a film reel border]()
Writing Mozart Cadenzas
David Josefowitz Recital Hall
