Robert Schumann Photo: Public Domain
By 1836 Robert Schumann had deeply fallen in love with Clara, the daughter of his piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck. Her father bitterly opposed their marrying and had them living in enforced separation. Out of this period of anguish and despair during which he feared Clara was lost to him, a single-movement piano work entitled “Ruines. Fantasies” was born, one which he later described to Clara as “the most passionate thing I have ever written…a deep lament for you”.
Later in the year, Schumann was inspired to add two more movements to the work with the intention of publishing them together as a “Grand Sonata for Beethoven” but it was finally published under the simpler but generic musical term 'Fantasie' with a dedication to Franz Liszt.
With his usual penchant for literary allusions, Schumann prefaces the work with a quotation from a poem by Friedrich Schlegel: “Through all the tones in this colourful earthly dream, a quietly drawn-out tone sounds for the one who listens furtively”. This secret 'tone' not only refers to the spirit of Beethoven that hovers above the work, but also to Clara. A few years later when they were finally reunited, Schumann directed Clara’s attention to this poetic inscription and asked, “Aren't you the ‘tone’ in the motto? I believe so.”
Recorded 29 September 2019, at St. Andrew's on The Terrace, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer/sound engineer: Darryl Stack
