Romance
Clara SCHUMANN (1819-1896)
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7 (1833-35) [21:16]
Romances (3), Op. 11 [13:42]
Deuxième Scherzo, Op. 14 [4:52]
Romances (3), Op. 22 [10:06]
Piano Sonata in G minor [20:10]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Myrthen, Op. 25 (arr. Clara Schumann) [2:14]
Widmung (arr. Clara Schumann) [2:14]
Liederkreis (excerpt), Op. 39 (arr. Clara Schumann) [3:51]
Mondnacht (arr. Clara Schumann) [3:51]
Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Jonathan Aasgaard (cello - op. 7); Elena Urioste (violin - op. 22)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Holly Mathieson
rec. 2019-2020, The Friary, Liverpool and Saffron Hall
DECCA 4850020 [76:00]
The pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, at the age of 24, makes her debut on Decca with this bicentenary tribute (all but two years) to Clara Schumann.
I am a benighted soul that has never, until now, heard the Clara Schumann Piano Concerto or any of her other music for that matter. This disc puts that injustice and deprivation to rights. There was never any excuse apart from time and exploring priorities. After all, the concerto has been recorded quite a few times. The occasion of hearing this music is a disc born of the industry’s star rating of the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and latterly of his intensely musical family. There was even a television programme about them during lockdown. Their joyous accomplishment and affection fully justify the fame. It is no surprise, still mildly regrettable, that these matters produce a CD cover that has the pianist’s name above the word ‘ROMANCE’ in large block capitals and then in the third line Clara Schumann’s name is mentioned. Ah well, it’s hardly the first time that these seeming priorities have surfaced in the classical music world ... and it’s the music that matters.
A&R is indeed trivial in the face of this music and the pianist’s confident and engaged musicmaking. Recognisably from the world of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms (a very close family friend whose friendship continued with Clara long after Robert’s tragic death), the Concerto is by no means a watered-down sub-Robert Schumann confection. The invention stands the test of time and memory. Sure enough, there are moments (for example the final bars) where the tropes of that era demand certain gestures but it’s a captivating work. It makes me wonder what her Concerto Movement in F minor (1847, completed Jozef de Beenhouwer) is like. You can hear it played on Danacord by Oleg Marshev (piano) and by Howard Shelley on Hyperion The Concerto was completed by the sixteen-year-old Clara and premiered by her with the Gewandhausorchester conducted by Mendelssohn. This is a thoroughly rewarding romantic concerto and not a thing of insubstantial tinsel and tears. For a start, don’t miss the middle movement with its cello solo played, with throaty feeling, not by Kanneh but by the RLPO’s cello principal, Jonathan Aasgaard.
The Three Romances for piano fluently express calm and enchantment. They are plangent and lilting and here are ideally paced. Yeats writes of ‘secret smiles’ and this music embodies that mood, but steeped in innocence. The Scherzo No. 2 relates to the galloping joyous world of the outer movements of the Concert. We then arrive at the Three Romances for violin and piano. Here the controlled expressive violinist is Elena Urioste who, in 2017, delivered us a superb disc (BBCMM416) on BBC Music Magazine (we never get to review these for some reason) including the Smyth Double Concerto, Beach and Barber. These Romances are a little darker than those for solo piano but the last of these is the most songful. The disc ends with the four-movement Sonata by Clara. It is about the same duration as the Concerto. This floral beauty is just as ready to embrace the sort of sable moments we find in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 Clara’s transcriptions of Robert Schumann's lieder, including 'Widmung' (Dedication) and 'Mondnacht' (Moonlit Night), extend adoring justice and delicate playing to the originals.
There is no shortage of representation of this Schumann’s piano music including on Hyperion, Tudor and Naxos. There are also several volumes on CPO and one each by Ragna Schirmer on Berlin Classics and Angela Cheng on CBC.
I hope that this disc will not be lost in the mêlée when Universal comes at some distant point in the future to issue multi-disc editions of Decca’s piano artistry. It’s that good.
Rob Barnett
Previous review: Dominy Clements
