ROMANCE
Piano Music of Clara Schumann
ISATA KANNEH-MASON, Piano
Decca 485 0020 / ****1/2
This year marks the 200th
birth anniversary of Clara Schumann (1819-1896). Born Clara Wieck, she was the
wife of the great German composer Robert Schumann, mother to eight children,
and a former child prodigy who became one of the world’s greatest concert
pianists. She was also a composer, however far overshadowed by her husband,
whom she survived by some 40 years.
British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason
(born in Nottingham of parents from Antigua and Sierra Leone) makes the
strongest case possible for Clara’s major compositions for piano. Her Piano
Concerto in A minor, completed when she was just 16, is very accomplished
even if somehow derivative for the early-Romantic age.
Technical virtuosity is
given in the fast outer movements, but the slow movement is the most touching.
Her use of a significant cello solo pre-dates that of both Liszt and Brahms in
their second piano concertos. Here she is partnered by the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Holly Mathieson.
The other major work is the 20
minute-long Piano Sonata in G minor, in four movements, published as
recently as 1991. It is as serious as a sonata can get, but still an enjoyable
listen. Also included are Three Romances Op.11, Three Violin Romances
Op.22 (with violinist Elena Urioste) and Scherzo No.2 in C minor Op.14,
lyrical works that remind one of Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann himself.
Clara
as a transcriber of her husband’s songs, like Widmung (Dedication)
and Mondnacht (Moonlit Night), is ever sensitive and never
vulgar. Essential listening for romantics.
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