On Sept 6, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra continues its exploration of music from the Schumann family with works by both Robert Schumann and his wife Clara. These are surrounded by works from the 19th century's most famous virtuoso pianist and composer, Franz Liszt.
The concert is part of the celebrations marking the birthday of HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua. It is organised by the Department of Cultural Promotion, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra Foundation under the Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya. It takes place in the Main Hall of the Thailand Cultural Centre at 8pm.
All three composers were friends, had great respect for each other's talent and, remarkably, were born within nine years of each other. Liszt was one year younger than Robert Schumann, and it was the older composer who first made his mark in musical circles. In his 20s, Schumann composed a wealth of piano music. He had hoped to become a virtuoso performer. Unfortunately he had invented a device to strengthen the middle finger of his right hand. This proved a disaster. It weakened the hand to the point where any career as a performer was out of the question.
It was not long before he married his sweetheart, Clara Wieck. Nine years younger, Clara was already a virtuoso pianist who, like the young Mozart, had been taken around Europe by her father to show off her talents before she was 10. It is therefore hardly surprising that her husband's early works are mostly for piano.
The couple had eight children whom they adored. Many of Schumann's early works were written with his children in mind, some depicting the innocence and playfulness of childhood, others being more fantastic and emotional.
The Schumanns were German. After spells in various cities, they ended up in Dusseldorf close to the River Rhine. In the meantime, in a small village in neighbouring Hungary, Franz Liszt was born in 1811 to a Hungarian mother and German father. His father was a pianist in the service of Prince Esterházy, the same prince who had been the second patron of the great composer, Joseph Haydn, who died in the year before Robert Schumann was born.
Liszt's piano studies progressed so quickly that his father took him to Vienna for further study. One of his teachers there was Antonio Salieri, the court composer who was later wrongly alleged to have been responsible for Mozart's death. From Vienna the family moved to Paris where Liszt came into contact with some of the more radical of the century's composers. Berlioz, Paganini and Chopin both inspired him and stimulated a new direction in his compositions.
So impressed was Liszt with the monstrously difficult violin works by Paganini, he became almost obsessed with creating piano works of similar difficulty. Of his playing, Clara Schumann wrote in her journal: "He can be compared to no other virtuoso. He is the only one of his kind. He arouses fright and astonishment … his passion knows no limits."
The RBSO concert on Sept 6 opens with one of Liszt's best-known works, his Hungarian Rhapsody No.2. Even if you think you do not know it, almost certainly you will have seen one of the 1947 cartoon versions -- The Cat Concerto, featuring Tom and Jerry, or Rhapsody Rabbit with Bugs Bunny. Both are extremely clever and quite hilarious.
Originally written for solo piano, its popularity persuaded Liszt to make an arrangement for full orchestra. The arrangement being performed by the RBSO is a later one by Karl Müller Berghaus.
Katharina Treutler.
Liszt also closes the programme with his Symphonic Poem Les Préludes. This is the most popular of 13 symphonic poems written by the composer, a musical form in one movement he invented. After a slow introduction, the work develops with martial, heroic themes before coming to a stirring close.
Compared to the Schumanns' domestic bliss, Liszt's personal life was far more complicated. For almost nine years he lived together with a married countess who gave birth to their daughter Cosima in 1837. Cosima was to become a force in the music world in her own right when she married her second husband, the composer Richard Wagner, 24 years her senior. After Wagner's death, Cosima continued for many years as director of the festival Wagner had started at his Bayreuth Theatre.
For much of his earlier relationship, Liszt was away from home touring Europe as its most famous virtuoso pianist. Eventually he split up with the countess. It was not the end of Liszt's affairs with beautiful and rich married women, though. Yet, like the composer Brahms, he was never to marry.
The two works in the middle of the concert are Clara Schumann's A Minor Piano Concerto and her husband's Introduction And Appassionato In G Major. Clara Schumann was a far better pianist than her husband and had shown her virtuosity at an early age. She adored her husband whose love was reciprocated in full measure. With eight children, Clara had much less time to perform or compose. Yet her Piano Concerto is one of the great Romantic concertos that deserves to be heard far more frequently.
She started sketching the concerto at the age of 14. Robert then assisted her in completing the orchestration, perhaps one reason why many passages sound vaguely similar to his own A Minor Concerto written almost 10 years later. Clara's concerto was completed when she was 16. She herself performed the premiere with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra directed by another major Romantic composer/conductor, Felix Mendelssohn. With its extensive use of octaves of which she seemed particularly fond, this is truly a work for a virtuoso pianist.
Clara also gave the premiere of her husband's Introduction And Allegro Appassionato In G Major, Op.92. Although only around 15 minutes in length, the work is roughly similar to a piano concerto. By 1849 Robert had for years been showing signs of illness, although no doctor could be sure what exactly was wrong with him. Today he would almost certainly be described as suffering from bipolar disorder, resulting in frantic periods of work followed by extensive lethargic spells. The Introduction And Allegro Appassionato comes from one of his intense periods of composition.
Sadly, by 1854 his health had become so bad that he threw himself off a bridge into the River Rhine. Thereafter he was confined to a mental asylum where he died at 46.
Clara was distraught. While bringing up their children, she continued on her career as a pianist and composer, as well as regularly performing her husband's works.
The soloist for the RBSO Concert is the celebrated German pianist Katharina Treutler. A Steinway artist who lives in Berlin, she has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras and ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Melbourne Symphony.
Returning to the RBSO is Charles Olivieri-Munroe. A popular guest conductor with the RBSO, he is currently music director of two European orchestras in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as much being sought-after as a guest in other parts of the world.
"Hungarian Rhapsody — German Passion"
• Friday, Sept 6, 8pm at the Thailand Cultural Centre, Main Hall
• Ticket prices: 400 800 1,200 1,600 2,000
• 50% discount for students and those 60 or older.
For tickets and information contact: ThaiTicketmajor at 02-262-3456 or thaiticketmajor.com, or BSOF office at 02-255-6617/8, 02-255-9191/2, rbsothailand.com, or fb:royalbangkoksymphony
