Schumann: Etudes symphoniques, Kreisleriana - CD Booklet

Schumann Etudes Symphoniques Kinderszenen Kreisleriana

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni

Robert Schumann

(1810 -1856)

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni

Etudes Symphoniques | Opus 13 1 Thema (Andante) [1:28]

2 Etude I (variation I)(Un poco più vivo) [1:17]

3 Etude II (variation II) [3:22]

4 Etude III (Vivace) [1:23]

5 Etude IV (variation III) [0:58]

6 Etude V (variation IV)(Vivacissimo) [1:09]

7 Etude VI (variation V) (Agitato) [1:03]

8 Etude VII (variation VI)(Allegro molto) [1:18]

9 Etude VIII (variation VII)(Andante) [2:15]

10 Etude IX (Presto possibile) [0:40]

11 Etude X (variation VIII)(Allegro) [1:20]

12 Etude XI (variation IX)(Andante) [2:44]

13 Etude XII - FINALE (Allegro brillante) [6:13]

Kinderszenen | Opus 15

Kreisleriana | Opus 16

14 I Von fremden Ländern und Menschen

27 I Äusserst bewegt

[1:42]

15 II Kuriose Geschichte [1:01]

16 III Hasche-Mann [0:32]

17 IV Bittendes Kind [0:55]

18 V Glückes genug [1:04]

19 VI Wichtige Begebenheit [0:47]

20 VII Träumerei [2:57]

21 VIII Am Kamin [0:49]

22 IX Ritter vom Steckenpferd [0:34]

23 X Fast zu ernst [1:59]

24 XI Fürchtenmachen

[2:36]

28 II Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch- ??????

[2:25]

29 Intermezzo I (sehr lebhaft) – Erstes tempo [2:25]

30 Intermezzo II (Etwas bewegter) – Langsamer (Erstes tempo) – Adagio – Erstes tempo [4:18]

31 III Sehr aufgeregt [4:29]

32 IV Sehr langsam [3:43]

33 V Sehr lebhaft [2:51]

34 VI Sehr langsam [4:21]

35 VII Sehr rasch [2:13]

36 VIII Schnell und spielend [3:31]

[1:30]

25 XII Kind im Einschlummern [1:54]

26 XIII Der Dichter Spricht [2:35]

Recorded 16-18 November 2003 in the Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh Producer: Paul Baxter Cover Design: © John Christ jcc76@hotmail.com 2003 Delphian Records Ltd © 2003 Delphian Records Ltd Delphian Records Ltd PO Box 17179 Edinburgh EH12 5YD www.delphianrecords.co.uk

Total Playing time [76:24]

Representation by: Christine Talbot-Cooper – International Artists Stoneville Cottage, Gretton Fields, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL54 5HH Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1242 620736 email: talbotcooper@onetel.net.uk

Programme Note

Etudes Symphoniques | Opus 13 The Etudes Symphoniques owe their existence to Baron von Fricken, a keen music lover, amateur flautist and aspiring composer. In the summer of 1834 he sent Schumann his own set of flute variations for approval, and shortly received a remarkably insightful criticism of his efforts from the great composer. But in addition to assessing the work, Schumann was so impressed by von Fricken’s theme that he began to write his own set of variations on it for the piano, resulting, after many revisions and alterations, in the Etudes as we now have them (1837). Schumann’s original manuscripts for the work indicate the extent to which he changed his mind during those three years: initially the theme was entitled Tema quasi Marcia Funebre, and of the ten variations that followed, only two survived in the completed version. But five others are also now familiar thanks to Brahms’s decisions to salvage them as a separate group in the Breitkopf complete edition. Schumann may well have decided to excise these variations because their generally brooding and introspective character

may have seemed to him to strain the richness and variability of the overall design, especially given the lugubrious and reflective nature of von Fricken’s theme. Hence the present recording does not include the Opus Posthumous variations, in acknowledgement of Schumann’s struggle to achieve the right transition from a funeral march in the opening theme to a radiant and triumphal finale: anything excised from a grand design so carefully and deliberately worked out should be left out of performance, even if, as is the case with the five variations Brahms saved, the discarded work is comprised of individual gems which perhaps ought to be performed independently It seems likely that the transformation achieved in the finale was inspired by Schumann’s relationship, from 1836, with the young English pianist William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) — whose friendship embodied for Schumann the anglophile sentiments in Heinrich August Marschner’s (1795-1861) Ivanhoe opera, Die Templer und die Jüdin (expressed by the recurring phrase “Du stolzes England,

freue dich”). For all its scintillating exuberance, the finale has nonetheless incurred criticism for its tendency towards repetition and the dotted rhythms throughout its episodes. But this relentlessness only serves to emphasise the stroke of genius which comes in the form of the dazzling ƒƒƒ B-flat major chord which occurs twenty bars before the end, piercing the D-flat major tonality like a blaze of light.

Kinderszenen | Opus 15 & Kreisleriana | Opus 16 During the unhappy months in which Friedrich Wieck’s disapproval of Schumann’s relationship with his daughter kept the composer and Clara apart, music was their chief means of communication.

As Schumann wrote to her at Easter 1838, “It’s very curious, but if I write much to you, I can’t compose. The music goes all to you.” His Op. 15 and Op. 16 were both cycles of pieces inspired by her – in fact an actual theme of hers may have been used in the latter – although very different in their style and inspiration. The former, Kinderszenen, is a charming collection of genre pieces suggested by Clara’s remark that Schumann sometimes seemed to her like a child; the latter, Kreisleriana, is a much more elaborate artistic self-portrait that takes its title and programmatic

nature from one of the eponymous heroes of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s (1776-1822) The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr, Together with a Fragmentary Biography, on Some Random Sheets of Scrap Paper, of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler.

The Kinderszenen are so well known that the skill with which they are composed and linked into a series is often overlooked.

Schumann declared that the title came to him after the composition, indicating that the musical ideas and contrasts between the movements were more important in his mind than the programmatic content.

No. 1, “About foreign lands and peoples”, conjures up an imaginative landscape – effectively the storyteller’s “Once upon a time…” – which is embellished throughout the subsequent movements until the conclusion, “The poet speaks”, when at last the storyteller himself, Schumann, steps forward. Some, such as No. 5, “Happiness”, briefly explore a single phrase and figuration; others, such as No. 11, “Frightening”, deal in succinct contrasts of mood and tempo. No. 3, “Blindman’s buff”, and No. 9, “Knight of the hobby-horse”, are playful without ever becoming archly roguish; some are reflective without ever descending into sugary sentimentality – here the most famous example is the evergreen No. 7, “Dreaming”

A mere month after completing these pieces, Schumann turned a more inward gaze upon himself in Kreisleriana. This work seems to inhabit the twilight world of German romantic literature, in particular the grotesque fables of Hoffmann, by virtue of perverse recurring motifs such as triplet skirls and arabesques. A compressed genius bursts forth from almost every bar in a work that asserts fresh possibilities for the expressive powers of piano music in terms of form, literary association, and adherence to the aspirations of High Romanticism. Hoffmann, revered by Romantic musicians for his fantastic tales no less than his critical acumen and weird, beguiling character, created in Kreisler the epitome of the bizarre unbalanced musician as a metonym for one aspect of Romantic feeling. The inspiration for Hoffmann’s character may well have been the musician Ludwig Böhner (1787-1860), whom Schumann initially considered reviewing in his journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik; but his creative response in the form of Kreisleriana was more akin to the spirit of Hoffmann’s work than the character Johannes Kreisler himself. The eight pieces that comprise Kreisleriana are considerably more substantial than the Kinderszenen and also much more unified: they are all linked by tonality – the key centre is G minor – and, unlike the Kinderszenen pieces, they could hardly be

performed separately. Two of them, Nos. 4 and 6, are among the strangest pieces Schumann ever wrote, deeply introspective and almost suggesting opera in their quasirecitative opening, followed by a more sustained lyrical sequel. No. 2 is constructed as a distant analogue for the Classical minuet and trio (here, two trios) although the music is searching and personal, far removed from the eighteenth-century minuet’s aristocratic pleasantries. Likewise the more urgent rondo movements are very different from their lighter Classical counterparts, appearing as a favourite form throughout the work in increasingly abbreviated and intensified epiphanies.

Kreisleriana reminded Schumann of the emotional chaos within him during his separation from Clara, and perhaps also his own imaginary personifications of these extremes, Florestan (dynamic and extrovert) and Eusebius (melancholy and introspective), creatures of the mind who give us an insight into the progressive desolation in the composer’s spirit. © 2003 by Peter Bradley-Fulgoni and Dominic Bailey.

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni Pianist

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni studied first in England at the Purcell School and then at the Royal College of Music with Kendall Taylor and Phyllis Sellick, where he achieved the top grade for piano performance and a place in the final of the Chappell Piano Prize. Shortly afterwards, he was the outright winner of the Bromsgrove Festival’s International Young Musicians’ Platform. He later undertook postgraduate work with Alexander Kelly at the Royal Academy of Music, and also had the opportunity to take part in Masterclasses with Edith Vogel. On winning awards from the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and the Italian Institute of Culture (London), he undertook further studies in Italy with Bruno Mezzena (a pupil of Michelangeli) and in Moscow with Mikhael Murach. He returned later to study in London with Andrzej Esterhazy (a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus). During this time he won numerous prizes and awards, including the F Neglia International Piano Competition (Italy), and was awarded a “diploma of honour” two years running at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona (Spain).

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni made his Wigmore Hall debut after winning the Peter Morrison Prize, a competition organised under the auspices of the Incorporated Society of Musicians. Subsequent engagements included recitals and concerto performances throughout Europe together with frequent broadcasts in UK, for BBC Radio 3, also in Germany, Poland, China and Inner Mongolia. In 2001 he played at St-Martinin-the-Fields, London, as part of the Pianists of the World series. He has a vast solo and concerto repertoire ranging from Bach to Boulez including many obscure gems from the western canon, such as works by Zipoli and Gerhard. His CD of Brahms piano music on the Altamira label has received excellent reviews.

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni is recognised as an inspirational teacher, also giving piano and chamber music masterclasses.

Schumann Etudes symphoniques Kinderszenen Kreisleriana

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni, pianist