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6:00 PM TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2018
BENNETT GORDON HALL
CHRISTOPHER PARK,
piano
ALL-SCHUMANN PROGRAM
Arabeske
Variations on a Nocturne by Chopin
*
Concerto Without Orchestra
(
)
*
Allegro
Quasi variazioni: Andantino de Clara Wieck
Prestissimo possibile
–
–
Blumenstück
*
Faschingsschwank aus Wien
(
Phantasiebilder
)
Allegro: Sehr lebha
Romanze: Ziemlich langsam
Scherzino
Intermezzo: Mit grösster Energie
Finale: Höchst lebha
*
First performance at Ravinia
ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–56)
Arabeske
in C major, op.
Schumann spent several months in Vienna in
– in an e ort to establish himself in the
capital as a composer and critic. Appeasing
Friedrich Wieck, his piano teacher and the fa-
ther of his beloved Clara, provided the prima-
ry motivation for his relocation from Leipzig.
Doubting Schumann’s ability to earn a steady
income, Wieck insinuated that he might con-
sider a marriage between Clara and Robert if
the underemployed musician could succeed in
Vienna. Schumann arrived on October ,
,
and immediately initiated the arduous process
of transferring his
Neue Zeitschri für Musik
, to
Vienna, which lacked a similar music journal.
While this process wound its way through the
bureaucracy, Schumann enjoyed the cultural
life of Vienna. His new acquaintances includ-
ed Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (the son of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) and Ferdinand
Schubert (the brother of Franz Schubert). Ferdi-
nand handed over several of his deceased broth-
er’s unpublished manuscripts, among them the
Symphony in C major, .
, which Schumann
shepherded into print and arranged to be pre-
miered by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
under Felix Mendelssohn on March ,
.
Schumann made a pilgrimage to the Währing
cemetery to visit the gravesites of Beethoven and
Schubert. He also corresponded frequently and
a ectionately with Clara, who was in Paris for
the rst time without her father.
Schumann’s time in Vienna also produced a
number of piano compositions of di ering
scope and size, from the single-movement
Ar-
abeske
in C major, op. ;
Blumenstück
in D- at
major, op.
; and
Humoreske
in B- at major,
op.
; to initial work on the piano cycle
Fas-
chingsschwank aus Wien
, op.
. Assuming the
role of self-critic, Schumann assessed
Blumen-
st
ü
ck
and
Arabeske
as somewhat insubstantial
in comparison to the
Humoreske
, playing on the
meaning of the titles: “I am not at all at fault,” he
Robert Schumann
AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 2, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
101