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as a pianist, and by the age of twelve was well on the way to becoming a re- nowned virtuoso on the instrument. Meanwhile she had begun composing at least as early as 1828, when she wrote a waltz for piano. Several of her earliest works mentioned in various documents, including her first waltz and a scherzo for orchestra, are now lost, but others were published during the 1830s. Her Op. 1, a set of four polonaises, appeared in print in 1831 after being com- posed during the previous two years, and several more piano works were composed and published as Opp. 2 6 between 1832 and 1836. They range from the virtuosic to the more poetic and introspective, and were generally well received. The crowning achievement among her early works, however, was a piano concerto in A minor, begun in January 1833. One movement, the finale, was completed later that year, and was performed at least twice in 1834, in May and September. The first two movements were added by 1835, and a complete performance of the three-movement work took place on 9 Composers Born between 1801 and 1850 135 November 1835. The concerto was then revised in 1836 and published the following January. A detailed examination of the concerto can be found in Lindeman (1999, 129 40). Lindeman notes that the first movement has a very unusual structure, consisting of an exposition and a developmental section but no proper reca- pitulation. Use of sonata form without recapitulation had occasionally appeared before (in Beethoven s Overture Leonore No. 2, Schubert s Wanderer Fan- tasie, and Berlioz s Symphonie Fantastique, for example), but the absence of any tonic recapitulation is probably unprecedented in a piano concerto. Instead the opening movement modulates near the end to E major and then leads without a break into a slow movement, a Romanze in the remote key of A flat major. The outer two movements have close thematic links, and the middle movement also has some thematic similarity, though this is less conspicuous. The finale was orchestrated by Clara s husband-to-be, Robert Schumann, who had by then known her for some years. But this should not be taken as an indication that she was incapable of orchestration; she apparently orchestrated the first two move- ments herself. Particularly striking is her use of a solo cello in the slow move- ment. This was one of several features of her concerto that were later to appear in Schumann s own piano concerto in A minor, and it can also be found in the slow movement of Brahms s Second Piano Concerto. Whatever defects Clara s concerto has (and she was well aware of them), it shows much originality and is unusual for having been a direct influence on other composers. Works: Waltz for piano, 1828 Four polonaises (Op. 1), 1829 30 (publ. 1831) Three sets of variations, 1830 31 Scherzo for orchestra, 1830 31 Songs, including Der Traum and Alte Heimath, 1831 Etude in A flat, c. 1831 Caprices (Op. 2), 1831 32 Romance variée (Op. 3), 1831 33 Lost piano pieces, 1832 33 Valses romantiques (Op. 4), 1835 Four pièces caracteristiques (Op. 5), 1833 36 Piano concerto in A minor, 1833 35 (revised 1836) Soirées musicales (Op. 6), 1834 36 Chissell, Joan, Clara Schumann: A Dedicated Spirit (London: Hamilton, 1983). Lindeman, Stephan D., Structural Novelty and Tradition in the Early Romantic Piano Con- certo (Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon, 1999). Reich, Nancy B., Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman (London: Gollancz, 1985). 136 Chapter 8 Sound Recordings Early piano works in Clara Schumann, Complete Piano Works, Jozef de Beenhouwer. CPO 999 758-2 (1991). Several recordings of Piano Concerto in A minor. Carl (Anton Florian) Eckert (7 Dec. 1820 14 Oct. 1879) Eckert began composing by the age of five, as is indicated in the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of 7 December 1825. When aged seven, hav- ing already composed a setting of Erlkönig (although he was unfamiliar with Schubert s at the time), he met Goethe and set Goethe s poem Der König des Thule. He became quite celebrated as a child composer, writing his first opera, Das Fischermädchen, at the age of ten and a two-act oratorio, Ruth, at the age of thirteen, which was performed in Berlin in 1834. In later life, however, he achieved only limited success as a composer, and became far more prominent as a conductor in Vienna, Stuttgart, and finally Berlin. Nearly all his childhood works appear to be lost, though some may survive among his manuscripts in Berlin. Blume, Friedrich, ed., Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Supplement (Kassel and Basel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1949 68). Gibbs, Christopher H., Komm, geh mit mir : Schubert s Uncanny Erlkönig, 19th-Century Music 19 (1995): 115 35, esp. 116. César Franck (10 Dec. 1822 8 Nov. 1890) [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |
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