Anniversary for classical music's poster boy


Robert Schumann died on 29th July 1856. The picture above was taken by On An Overgrown Path in Schumann's birthplace Zwickau earlier this year. For the full story follow An Overgrown Path to Robert Schumann's Zwickau

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If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Rare Romantic Requiems in Avignon

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KW said…
Much as I’m happy to see Shostakovich getting so much attention in his 100th anniversary year, I’ve been a bit sad do see the 150th anniversary of the death of Robert Schumann go almost completely unnoticed, except at On An Overgrown Path.

I actually very lovingly set out to combine the two anniversaries into a mini-series with the Surrey Mozart Players. The idea was to do back to back concerts of one symphony and one solo work by each, paired with a Beethoven overture (Beethoven being arguably the largest influence on either). The programs were going to look like this

Beethoven- Coriolan Overture
Schumann- Cello Concerto
Shostakovich- Chamber Symphony op 83a

Beethoven- Leonore Overture No. 3
Shostakovich- Poems of Maria Tsvetayeva
Schumann- Symphony No. 3

I actually thought the pairing was exceptionally interesting and put both of them in a fresh context. Schumann the polemicist versus Shostakovich the yurodivy, Florestan and Eusebius versus Shostakovich the Old and New, it was going to be great. Well, soloist cost, the lack of people who can sing in Russian, marketing concerns and scheduling issues nearly did us in, but in the end we managed to keep everything except the songs, which have been replaced by the Prokofiev 2nd fiddle concerto, which is a great piece, it just doesn’t fit the theme.

Sadly, by the time we had dealt with soloist availability, orchestra conflicts and all that we ended up with both concerts in 2007….

Ken Woods
5:59 pm
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