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drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
Robert Schumann was one of the giants of the Romantic era, many of his works standard repertoire. One would assume that anything he composed would be well known and widely performed -- especially a violin concerto composed for one of the most famous violinists of the day. But somehow one of his greatest masterpieces is rarely played and relatively unknown.
In 1853, the violinist Joseph Joachim asked Schumann to write a concerto for him. Schumann took on the job with enthusiasm, fully scoring the concerto in less than two weeks. Not long after, in February 1854, Schumann jumped off a bridge into the Rhine. Though he survived the suicide attempt, the composer was confined to an insane asylum for the rest of his life. The violin concerto was Robert Schumann's last large-scale work and second-last piece of music, followed only by a theme and variations for solo piano composed in early 1854.
Joachim was not enamored with the concerto. He suggested that Schumann's deteriorating mental health was evident in the composition. He persuaded Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, who were editing the first complete edition of Robert Schumann's works, to suppress it. Clara Schumann required little persuading, as she disliked most of her husband's late works. Brahms, young and almost completely unknown at the time, acquiesced as well. (Interestingly, Brahms had first met Robert Schumann in person three days before Schumann completed the violin concerto.) The score and parts remained in Joachim's hands. Joachim bequeathed the manuscript, along with the rest of his papers, to the Prussian State Library with the stipulation that it should not be performed or published until 100 years after Robert Schumann's death.
In 1933, a Hungarian violinist named Jelly d’Arányi, a great-niece of Joseph Joachim, claimed to have communicated with Robert Schumann himself through an Ouija board at a seance in London. Supposedly Schumann wanted her to find and perform his lost violin concerto. Another seance directed her to the Hochschule Museum in Berlin; she wrote to the Hochschule but no one responded. Further psychic messages told her to contact her friend Erik Kule Palmstierna, a Swedish diplomat. Palmstierna went to the Hochschule on his next visit to Berlin and was shown a folder marked "Schumann," but it contained only music by other composers. Another visitor, overhearing Palmstierna, directed him to the Prussian State Library, where he found Schumann's concerto buried among Joachim's personal papers. The score was marked "unfinished," but at a subsequent seance Schumann's ghost insisted that it was complete. The story of Schumann's ghost directing d’Arányi to his concerto is, of course, highly questionable; it is likely that d’Arányi was told of Schumann's concerto before her great-uncle's death. Nonetheless, she played a major role in starting the search for Schumann's missing concerto.
As for the concerto itself, d’Arányi would not be the first to play it. The publisher Schott Music sent a copy to Yehudi Menuhin in the United States to ask for his opinion. Menuhin declared Schumann's concerto the missing link between the Beethoven and Brahms concerti and planned to perform the premiere himself. Then the German government claimed the world copyright to it, and insisted that it be premiered in Germany and by a German. The first performance, given in 1937, was by Georg Kulenkampff. It was a failure. Kulenkampff, not a virtuoso violinist and selected by the Nazi government for his ideology, made extensive edits to reduce the difficulty of the concerto. Menuhin gave the first performance of the unedited version in New York later that year with much greater success, and repeated it in St. Louis. Jelly d’Arányi gave the fourth performance, in London at the end of 1937. Despite the successful performances by Menuhin and d’Arányi, the negative reaction to Kulenkampff's premiere prevailed, and Schumann's violin concerto has remained rarely-performed until recently.
Movements:
I. In kräftigem, nicht zu schnellem Tempo
II. Langsam (16:00)
III. Lebhaft, doch nicht schnell (22:08)
Robert Schumann was one of the giants of the Romantic era, many of his works standard repertoire. One would assume that anything he composed would be well known and widely performed -- especially a violin concerto composed for one of the most famous violinists of the day. But somehow one of his greatest masterpieces is rarely played and relatively unknown.
In 1853, the violinist Joseph Joachim asked Schumann to write a concerto for him. Schumann took on the job with enthusiasm, fully scoring the concerto in less than two weeks. Not long after, in February 1854, Schumann jumped off a bridge into the Rhine. Though he survived the suicide attempt, the composer was confined to an insane asylum for the rest of his life. The violin concerto was Robert Schumann's last large-scale work and second-last piece of music, followed only by a theme and variations for solo piano composed in early 1854.
Joachim was not enamored with the concerto. He suggested that Schumann's deteriorating mental health was evident in the composition. He persuaded Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, who were editing the first complete edition of Robert Schumann's works, to suppress it. Clara Schumann required little persuading, as she disliked most of her husband's late works. Brahms, young and almost completely unknown at the time, acquiesced as well. (Interestingly, Brahms had first met Robert Schumann in person three days before Schumann completed the violin concerto.) The score and parts remained in Joachim's hands. Joachim bequeathed the manuscript, along with the rest of his papers, to the Prussian State Library with the stipulation that it should not be performed or published until 100 years after Robert Schumann's death.
In 1933, a Hungarian violinist named Jelly d’Arányi, a great-niece of Joseph Joachim, claimed to have communicated with Robert Schumann himself through an Ouija board at a seance in London. Supposedly Schumann wanted her to find and perform his lost violin concerto. Another seance directed her to the Hochschule Museum in Berlin; she wrote to the Hochschule but no one responded. Further psychic messages told her to contact her friend Erik Kule Palmstierna, a Swedish diplomat. Palmstierna went to the Hochschule on his next visit to Berlin and was shown a folder marked "Schumann," but it contained only music by other composers. Another visitor, overhearing Palmstierna, directed him to the Prussian State Library, where he found Schumann's concerto buried among Joachim's personal papers. The score was marked "unfinished," but at a subsequent seance Schumann's ghost insisted that it was complete. The story of Schumann's ghost directing d’Arányi to his concerto is, of course, highly questionable; it is likely that d’Arányi was told of Schumann's concerto before her great-uncle's death. Nonetheless, she played a major role in starting the search for Schumann's missing concerto.
As for the concerto itself, d’Arányi would not be the first to play it. The publisher Schott Music sent a copy to Yehudi Menuhin in the United States to ask for his opinion. Menuhin declared Schumann's concerto the missing link between the Beethoven and Brahms concerti and planned to perform the premiere himself. Then the German government claimed the world copyright to it, and insisted that it be premiered in Germany and by a German. The first performance, given in 1937, was by Georg Kulenkampff. It was a failure. Kulenkampff, not a virtuoso violinist and selected by the Nazi government for his ideology, made extensive edits to reduce the difficulty of the concerto. Menuhin gave the first performance of the unedited version in New York later that year with much greater success, and repeated it in St. Louis. Jelly d’Arányi gave the fourth performance, in London at the end of 1937. Despite the successful performances by Menuhin and d’Arányi, the negative reaction to Kulenkampff's premiere prevailed, and Schumann's violin concerto has remained rarely-performed until recently.
Movements:
I. In kräftigem, nicht zu schnellem Tempo
II. Langsam (16:00)
III. Lebhaft, doch nicht schnell (22:08)