Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Clara Schumann

Victoria Bond Opera & Ives Recital on WWFM

I’ve got the engine purring on the Classic Ross Amico interview machine.

Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network for a chat with composer Victoria Bond. Bond’s new opera, “Clara,” inspired by the life of Clara Schumann, will be performed at Symphony Space in New York City, this Friday at 7 p.m. A second performance will follow in Rhinebeck, NY, on Sunday at 3.

I’ll talk with Bond at 4:00 today. We’ll get to hear a selection from the opera, as well as music from her latest release, “Instruments of Revelation,” on the Naxos label.

Then at 5:00, violinist Stefan Jackiw will tell us about his exciting Ives recital, with pianist Jeremy Denk, that will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium tomorrow night at 8. The program will include not only all four violin sonatas of Charles Ives, but also demonstrations – with the help of Princeton University Glee Club – of some of the hymns, songs and marches to which the composer alludes.

Following our conversation, we’ll get to hear Jackiw and pianist Max Levinson perform, on their album of the complete Brahms’ violin sonatas, issued on Sony Classical.

At 6:00, it’s “Music from Marlboro,” and a salute to pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski. We’ll hear performances of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Ildebrando Pizzetti, captured at the legendary Marlboro Music Festival.

Along the way, we’ll also celebrate Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, and march king John Philip Sousa on their birthdays.

Experience music from Bach to Bond, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 6, 2019
Woldemar Bargiel Birthday Forgotten Composer

Today is the birthday of… He Who Must Not Be Named.

Oh, wait a minute. Sorry. Case of mistaken identity. It’s actually the birthday of WOLDEMAR BARGIEL. Bargiel, who lived from 1828 to 1897, was the half-brother of Clara Schumann.

Bargiel’s mother had been married to Clara’s father, Friedrich Wieck – unhappily, I might add – which should come as little surprise, considering Wieck was the man who threatened to shoot Robert Schumann for courting his daughter. He faced the would-be couple down in court, violated Clara’s privacy, spread vicious rumors about her, and even promoted a rival pianist in her place in the hopes that she would supplant his own daughter. Wieck was so unruly in his determination to see “justice” done that he himself was ordered to pay the lovers a hefty sum and sentenced to jail for 18 days. Amazingly, everyone eventually reconciled, once Wieck became a grandfather, though he never completely abandoned his slippery-yet-inflexible ways.

It was he who drove Bargiel’s future mother, Mariane, into the arms of one of his friends, a fellow music teacher, who would soon become her second husband.

Despite the turbulence that rocked their parents’ world, Woldemar and Clara – who was nine years his senior – enjoyed a warm relationship. Thanks to her advocacy, Bargiel was welcomed by both Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, and was admitted to the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied with Ignaz Moscheles, Niels Gade and Julius Rietz. Later, Clara and Robert arranged for the publication of some of his early works.

Bargiel would one day repay the favor by coediting with Johannes Brahms a complete edition of Robert Schumann’s scores.

Avada Kedavra! Happy birthday, Woldemar Bargiel!

Bargiel’s Adagio for Cello and Orchestra:

His Piano Trio No. 1:

October 3, 2019
Rosh Hashanah Concert Celebrating Women Composers

For those of you who celebrate, I extend my best wishes for a good and sweet new year. The two-day observance of Rosh Hashana began last night at sunset.

To mark the occasion, and with the shofar still fresh in our ears, this afternoon on The Classical Network, I’ll present Meira Warshauer’s “Tekeeya: Concerto for Shofar, Trombone and Orchestra.”

Warshauer’s unusual concerto nicely dovetails with my month-long celebration of women composers, to coincide with the bicentennial of the birth of Clara Schumann.

On this last day of September, I’ll have one more work by Schumann herself; also the “Psalm” for cello and orchestra by Irish composer Ina Boyle (a pupil of Ralph Vaughan Williams).

As if all that weren’t enough, I’ll send out musical birthday greetings to Johan Svendsen, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, David Oistrakh, and Valentin Silvestrov.

The playlist will be as sweet as a mouth full of apples and honey, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 30, 2019
Autumn Classical Music Women Composers

La-dee-dah, dee-dah-dee-dum, ‘tis Autumn. Now somebody please tell the weather!

Unfortunately, we all know the drill by now. 90 degrees at the equinox, things cool down somewhat, we put on a sweater, and then it’s back to 110 for Hallowe’en. It makes me long for the days when I would defy my mother so as not to have to wear a coat over my costume.

I hope you’ll join me today on The Classical Network, as I continue to highlight music by women composers – in this month of the Clara Schumann bicentennial – even as I rail against nature with selections to mark the change of season by Cécile Chaminade, Fanny Mendelssohn, Imogen Holst, and Peggy Stuart Coolidge.

I’ll also celebrate the birthday anniversaries of William Levi Dawson, Alexander Arutiunian, and Robert Helps, and offer a musical remembrance of Christopher Rouse, who died on Friday at the age of 70.

The playlist will be as variegated as an enticing pile of leaves. I’ll be munching on Spiced Wafers and making like Nat King Cole, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM 89.1 FM the Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 23, 2019
Celebrating Clara Schumann’s Bicentennial

I invite you to join me today in celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Clara Schumann. Clara Schumann was born Clara Wieck on this date in 1819; she died in 1896.

While she composed comparatively little herself, if we were to stack her manuscripts alongside those of her associates, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, based on what survives, she really sold herself short.

Still, there’s no underestimating her influence as a pianist. Not only was she praised for her imaginative and sensitive interpretations at the keyboard, as a successful performer, she was also able to keep enough food on the table to sustain her large family and to hold it all together when her mercurial husband slipped off the rails.

For the last two decades of her life, she taught at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. This shot out tendrils in all directions, including to the Juilliard School, where one of her pupils taught Malcolm Frager and Bruce Hungerford.

Fortunately, enough of her music survives to put together a decent salute. We just heard her Piano Trio in G minor on “Music from Marlboro” on Wednesday. Today, we’ll enjoy her “Three Romances” for violin and piano, as well as her Konzertsatz in F minor, the first movement of an intended second piano concerto. We’ll also hear Robert Schumann’s “Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck” (her maiden name) and “Widmung,” or “Dedication,” a song Robert composed for his new bride.

I am celebrating women all month long. To this end, we’ll also hear Elisabetta Brusa’s opulent Schumann tribute, “Florestan.” Then at 6:00, we’ll hear film scores of Doreen Carwithen, alongside those of her decades-long partner and future husband, William Alwyn.

I hope you’ll join me for Clara Schumann and more, from 3 to 6:00 EDT – with “Picture Perfect” following at 6 – on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 13, 2019

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