Clara Schumann gewidmet
Kathrin Schmidlin (piano)
rec. 2024, Tonstudio Waldenburg, Switzerland
Claves 50-3122/23 [51+58]
Clara Schumann was among the foremost pianists of the 19th century and it is in this capacity that she achieved her fame though after her death it was her marriage to Robert Schumann that became the prime focus. The perspective of time has allowed for a reassessment of her role and she has taken up her rightful place as a giant of the 19th century, a virtuoso pianist of high standing, an imaginative composer who willingly sacrificed her talent in that regard to her for love of her husband, an editor and finally a mentor and teacher whose pupils include Leonard Borwick, Fanny Davies and Carl Friedberg.
Her 68 year career as a pianist attracted the attention of many composers and her name graced the dedications of symphonies, piano trios and quintets, cello sonatas, violin sonatas and piano duets. There were obviously plenty of piano works too and Kathrin Schmidlin has brought together works by eleven composers; she could easily fill another double CD with dedications by Max Bruch, Anton Rubinstein, Theodor Kullak and composers lost to history such as Hubert Kufferath or Ferdinand Quentin Dulcken. She opens with the three Charakterstücke by her maternal half-brother Woldemar Bargiel; Clara was nine years his senior and had helped him through introductions to her husband and to Mendelssohn as well as arranging for his early works to be published. The three character pieces consist of a restless, surging allegro appassionato, an elegiac second piece with hymn like serenity and finally a vigorous dance that hints just a little at Schumann but is mostly as individual as its companions; they are melodious and imaginative. He wasn’t hugely prolific but these early pieces bode well for the quality of his other music. Vincenz Lachner was the brother of composer Franz Lachner and was predominantly a conductor and educator. He took over from his brother as the conductor at Mannheim and remained there successfully for 37 years. His large output includes many vocal works alongside several piano works. His impromptu is a delightful creation with its long lyrical introduction leading to a fleet scherzo in the style of something like Mendelssohn’s andante and rondo capriccioso though once again Lachner, though conservative, has his own voice. The tarantelle is equally as entertaining and features a lovely breezy and melodic middle section. Alexander Dreyschock, the Hannibal of octaves as Mendelssohn described him, with his stunt of playing the left hand of Chopin’s Revolutionary study in octaves would not have fitted into the Schumanns’ musical world view. The booklet tells us that Robert criticised his poverty of imagination and melody and Heine remarked that he makes an infernal racket. His rhapsodie Zum Wintermärchen echoes Chopin in its nocturnal passages without the Pole’s melodic gifts and the lilting outer sections are pleasant enough but sound second rate compared to the works we have so far heard. Stephen Heller was born in Pest in 1813 and was friends with Chopin, Liszt and that circle. His large output, 158 opuses including sets of études and preludes, appears to be solely for piano – there is a violin and piano work but that was a collaboration with the Czech violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. His two tarantelles are more compact than Lachner’s but written in a similar vein. The second in A flat was the first work by Heller to be recorded; that was back in 1916 with Una Bourne at the piano in a real presto account. Schmidlin doesn’t aim to achieve that speed but plays them well regardless.
Robert dedicated several works to his wife including Studies on a theme by Beethoven and the first piano sonata. His final piano work also bears her name and his troubled state at the time comes across both in the inspiration, angelic voices that gave him the chorale theme, and the uneasy nature of the piano writing in the five variations, thorny and full of suspensions and passing dissonances; such a difference from the optimism and boldness of his earlier variations. The Schumann of the fantasiestück is brought to mind a little with the final number of Elisabeth von Herzogenberg’s eight piano pieces, here the right hand flies over a surging left hand, giving way to a jocular Hungarian dance. She studied with Brahms, who became friends with her and her composer husband, Heinrich von Herzogenberg; the two rhapsodies op.79 are dedicated to her and Clara admired her pianism. Not surprisingly Brahms dedicated several works to Clara including the second sonata and the six fantasies op.118 but it is elegant arrangement of Gluck’s Gavotte from Iphegénie en Aulide that Schmidlin plays.
Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann was born in Copenhagen but like many Danes he studied in Germany. He became friends with Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Brahms and remained so even after he returned to direct the Copenhagen Music Conservatory. He wrote many piano works and though his fantasy pieces may share their title with Schumann’s op.12 pieces I am more reminded of Mendelssohn. They are engaging and melodic without being hugely memorable; in my review of the fifth volume of Thomas Trondhjem’s complete traversal of Hartmann’s piano works (Danacord DACOCD968 review) I was most impressed by the fifth, a minuet and the elegant sixth and hearing them once again has not changed my mind. Mendelssohn featured strongly in Clara’s life and it was he who took the podium when the 16 year old Clara played her piano concerto. He dedicated the fifth book of songs without words to her and she kept at least three of them in her repertoire including the famous and occasionally maligned Spring song. The melody that opens the collection immediately sets Mendelssohn apart from his slighter contemporaries and if the hunting song, the fourth piece, is not his most inspired music there are classics like the Venetian gondola song and the Spring Song which, if one can cast off the sound of jangling ice cream vans which I now realise almost ruined this piece for me, is actually a little gem. So far I have at least heard of the composers that Ms Schmidlin has recorded but Eduard Bernsdorf is completely unknown to me. He was a composer, pianist and writer and seems to have gained recognition as a critic for signale für die muiskalische Welt, a journal founded in Berlin in 1843. The first of his three intermezzi Die Libellen, the dragonflies, is a Mendelssohnian scherzo while the second is an extended barcarolle that I thought was going to mimic Mendelssohn’s gondola songs but it is develops into a gracefully balletic intermezzo. The third is a gently lilting waltz and once again I am reminded of the sheer number of attractive miniatures must lie forgotten in libraries all over the world. Bedřich Smetana’s music has mostly escaped that fate though his piano works have been eclipsed by his orchestral and operatic work. The two books of Czech dances have the occasional outing but little beyond that is heard though Smetana was an outstanding pianist and there is some wonderful music to be discovered. He met the Schumanns in 1847 and soon sent several albumleaves to Clara who wrote back with mostly positive words, singling out nos. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13 for praise; apparently she found some of the others to be too bizarre. The albumleaves were later published as op.2 and the two books of sketches opp.4 and 5; the booklet does not say which of these relate to the items that Clara particularly liked but as ms Schmidlin is playing the op.4 sketches perhaps these are the ones. They do not have a distinctive Czech voice yet but they are wonderfully laid out for the piano; the melodic writing in the opening prelude with its two against three rhythms is very effective. There follows an idylle and nocturnal souvenir before an anxious Beharrliches Streben, persistent pursuit, whose flowing lines suggest dogged chase rather than a helter skelter run.
I really enjoyed Ms Schmidlin’s previous release Opus 1 feminin (Claves 50-3051 review) and have found this collection just as engaging.
Rob Challinor
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Contents
CD1
Woldemar Bargiel (1828-1897)
Drei Charakterstücke Op.8
Vincenz Lachner (1811-1893)
Zwei Klavierstücke Op.52
Alexander Dreyschock (1818-1869)
Rhapsodie Zum Wintermärchen Op.40 No.4
Stephen Heller (1813-1888)
Zwei Tarantelles Op.85
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Variations on an original theme – Ghost variations WoO.24
Elizabeth von Herzogenberg (1847-1892)
Allegro Appassionato No.8 from Acht Klavierstücke
CD2
Johannes Brahms (183-1897)
Gavotte von C.W.Gluck
Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900)
Fantasistykker Op.54
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Sechs Lieder ohne Worte Op.62
Eduard Bernsdorf (1825-1901)
Drei Intermezzi, ‘Die Libellen’ Op.10
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
4 Sketches Op.4
