Chopin & Schumann

Both Chopin & Schumann were born in 1810 & so this year, 2010, is their two hundredth anniversary of birth, a bicentennial celebration. It is proper & fitting to say something about them.

Chopin is popular in his piano music. Sometime he is called 鋼琴詩人. In fact he composed no symphonies, operas & very little orchestral work. His virtuoso is in the piano works. He is considered the most non-German of all great composers. Chopin had an interesting encounter with George Sand. 桑女士 , a woman frequently wore man’s clothes & indeed intended to act like a man. She wrote many novels quite popular at her time. Chopin was under her spell until he died. The fortunate things coming out of this perhaps was some of his brilliant piano works dedicated to her. Chopin’s famous music form, etude, is unique. The etude (練習曲) is a piano work written for students. However some of them are very good & romantic. Chopin Etude op.10 no.3, Tristesse (Sadness, 離別曲) is one of them. The title’ Tristesse’ was added later by publisher because of Chopin’s nostalgic mood to his homeland. His another romantic piano piece is Andante Spianato in G, Opus 22. I never heard this one in Taiwan. I heard it the first time on radio several years ago. This is one of his most romantic piano works. There are several movies from Hollywood for Chopin. “A Song to Remember” (中文 title: 一曲難忘, 1945) is one of them. I have seen VHS video released for this movie, but can’t find it on DVD, not in Netflix either. I did find some video clips from YouTube.

Chopin Met Liszt in Paris, a clip from ‘A Song to Remember’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDnNJ6aEWc&feature=related

A clip from ‘A Song to Remember’, a performance staged by George Sand & Franz Liszt. It was supposed to be played by Liszt. Instead Chopin played in the dark, a surprise to the audiences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM-KQc2lJdM

Chopin: Etude op.10 no.3, Tristesse (Sadness, 離別曲), played by Kempf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TR-i4r1BtM

Chopin: Andante Spianato played by Rubinstein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l39ZIkyvOJ0

Schumann is considered to be the most romantic of the Romantics. We often heard some of his tunes in the school, for example, the happy peasant 快樂的農夫, tramarel(夢幻曲) etc. He is unique among most composers that he also wrote music critic, encouraged & supported the late comers. His writings about music (in high quality) appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik ("The New Journal for Music"), a publication that he jointly founded. His romantic encounter with Clara Wick was well known. His most popular works include Symphony #1(Spring), #3(Rhenish), Carnaval, many songs, piano work Traumerei, Fantasy in C, concerto in A minor etc.

As a person, Schumann is much more controlled & dedicated to what he wants & what he think is right. He pursued Clara with zeal & dedication is far more respected than the weak & meek behavior of Chopin’s dealing with George Sand. Schumann was also quick in recognition of a genius & gave the approval. Instead Chopin seemed in failure to recognize the merit of Schumann’s work ‘Carnaval’. Hollywood likes romantic story. The movie ‘Sound of Love’ (1947) is for Robert & Clara Schumann. Same as ‘A Song to Remember’, I couldn’t find it in Netflix. However, I did find it in YouTube. Some of the music mentioned above can be found in the following links:

Happy Peasant (快樂的農夫), a tune we heard in the elementary school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmpQjjQOBA&feature=related

The beginning of the movie 'Song of Love'
Ironically, the opening theme is the piano concerto #1 of Franz Liszt, not Schumann.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP_iU-lcZ5Y&feature=related

Widmung (Dedication) from ‘Song of Love’
Here we listen to two versions of Widmung, the original one from Schumann & arranged version by Liszt. It seemed Clara didn’t like the Liszt version at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3eOggcKLqk

Waltz by Brahms (for the introduction to the next link ‘Brahms & Clara’)
This waltz is one of the most romantic works by Brahms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJcoaIeH3GI&feature=related

Brahms & Clara from ‘Song of Love’
The melody of Brahms’s waltz showed up at 1:54 & Brahms proposed to marry Clara. However, the fate intervened at 4:18. Widmung, the song Schumann dedicated to Clara showed up. Brahms realized that was the end of the affair, an affair to remember. This is the most romantic & poetic moment of the movie. (By the way, from 6:35 to 9:06 is the famous Piano Concerto in A Minor by Schumann. 6:35-7:27 is 1st movement, 7:28-9:06 is 3rd movement.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm-Zh0R6nMY&feature=related

Traumerei & the end of the movie 'Song of Love'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V35e5MNjLJI&feature=related

The above links of 'Song of Love' are not available due to the copyright issue on YouTube.

Horowitz plays Schumann Traumerei (夢幻曲) in Moscow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7ncjhSqtk&feature=related

Widmung (Dedication, Liszt’s version) played by Lang Lang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBdffJHZ2LM

PS: Year from 1809 to 1813 was a fantastic period of Romantic Music. Here is the chronicle (the magnificent six were all born within this period):
1809: Felix Mendelssohn (date: 2/3), 抒情聖手
1810: Frederic Chopin (3/1), 鋼琴詩人
1810: Robert Schumann (6/8), music composer & critic, 嚴肅而又浪漫的作曲家
1811: Franz Liszt (10/22), 鋼琴鬼才
1813: Richard Wagner (5/22), 樂劇之王
1813: Giuseppe Verdi (10/9), 歌劇之王

For some reason, it skipped 1812. Perhaps the year was reserved for Napoleon Bonaparte. He was not born in that year, however, he invaded Russia, an important historical event.