Saint Saëns: The Swan, from The Carnival of the Animals

When the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns was a baby just two months old, his father, an official in the Ministry of the Interior, died of consumption on the first anniversary of his marriage. This led the family to fear that Camille could have inherited the disease. It was not the case, though, over much of his lifetime, Camille endured a frail health and carried a weak physical constitution.

Quite the contrary, the author, born in 1835 –five years before Tchaikowski–, outlived the Russian maestro and other musicians of his time a number of years. He even reached to live in the first decades of the 20th century, dying in Algiers in 1921. He seems to us, therefore, an author of our times.

The Carnival of the Animals
Alongside this is the fact that some of his most famous works did not have a good reception at their premieres, and the audiences surrendered to their charms only in dates much later than their composition.
This is the case of the orchestral suite "The Carnival of the Animals", a sort of private joke that Saint-Saens wrote in 1886, in Vienna, on the return of an unfortunate tour that occurred to him to carry out in Germany right after he had spoken nasty things about Wagner and German music.

Written in order to forget the troubles of the tour, it is a kind of "zoological fantasy" divided into fourteen movements. Discouraged by the poor reception of the work, Saint-Saens forbade it to be performed while he was alive (with the exception of  "The Swan"), and it was not until 1922, a year after his death, that it was heard in its entirety by a larger and more numerous audience, reaching a celebrity that has not diminished since then.

The Swan
The fourteen movements make comic allusions to a large part of the music written by other composers of the time, including himself. The quotations are to Rossini, Berlioz, Offenbach, Mendelssohn and others, and the comedy comes fundamentally from both the unusual tempos the pieces are performed with or the instruments chosen for it. The movement entitled The Swan is the most serious and calm of the work, also, the most "romantic".

A staple of the cello repertoire, this is one of the most well-known movements of the suite, usually in the version for cello with solo piano which was the only publication of this work in Saint-Saëns's lifetime. More than twenty other arrangements of this movement have also been published, with solo instruments ranging from flute to alto saxophone.

The rendition is by the prominent cellist Yo-Yo Ma, born in France to Chinese parents.

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Tchaikovsky and Antonina - Violin concerto - Mov 1

In mid-March 1877, the brilliant Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky received a letter from an unknown woman in which she let him know her deep admiration for his work. Then others followed, more and more passionate. By the time, the 37-year-old composer had a full career already, so, letters from fans did not drive him mad –receiving letters had become a daily event.
Pyotr Ilyich, a sensitive person with a tendency to depression and a subject of recurrent nervous crisis, did not dare to contact the stranger. And it was not only a fear of gossip: the Muscovite society in which he lived had been commenting, sotto voce but sometimes acrimoniously, on some improper behaviours of the maestro. The issue was going far beyond that. The author was just one step away from seeing his manhood openly questioned.

For that very reason, finally, he took the step. Pyotr Ilyich ended up meeting Antonina Miliukova, who turned out to be a 28-year-old lady, moderately educated and with pleasant features and easy smile. Piotr Ilyich then took the final step. Just four months after receiving the first letter from his unknown admirer, Antonina and Pyotr Ilyich were married. The composer took Antonina as his wife and, in passing, as a barrier against the increasing rumours that fostered the suspicion of sexual misconduct.

The decision had disastrous results. For two never-ending months, Pyotr Ilyich was not able to approach the marriage bed... He did not have the strength to do so, and the marriage ended right there. They decided to separate, without grudges.
The composer fell into a depression of such magnitude that he was about to commit suicide. Antonina, on the other hand, began again to send letters to other celebrities to whom she lied, as to Pyotr Ilyich, about her noble origin, and whom she always ended up falling in love with. Antonina also had something about it and ended her days in an insane asylum.

Violin Concerto - First movement
Despite the disintegration of his marriage, in the following months Tchaikovsky completed the opera Eugene Onegin, orchestrated his Fourth Symphony, and composed the Violin Concerto.
The later was composed in March of the following year, exactly one year after the first letter of Antonina, in a resort on a shore of a lake, in Switzerland, where Pyotr Ilyich had gone to recover from the depression.
The work, in three movements, was initially rejected even by great virtuosos who believed it was unplayable; others found some of it impracticable.

The first movement lasts approximately 20 minutes. The abbreviated performance presented here belongs to the 1947 movie Carnegie Hall, with one of the most notable violinists of the 20th century, the Lithuanian maestro Jascha Heifetz, who plays himself in the film.
The more recent Franco-Russian film, The Concert, features a final scene with a mixture of the first and third movements, with a somewhat disastrous orchestra (according to the plot) that happily ends joining up.

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Viva Verdi! - Rigoletto vocal quartet

The months Giuseppe Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi spent wandering the pretty Paris streets in 1847, after enamouring each other in the Cafe Les Deux Magots, could not last forever. Shortly after the romance began, the news that the peoples of Italy had risen up against the Austrian occupation brought them back to reality. The revolution had finally erupted. Milan and Venice had revolted. The king of Piedmont, Carlos Alberto, attacked Austria.

"Music of the cannon"
Although he qualified at best as a moderate liberal, Verdi did not remain oblivious to the storm winds that were shaking Italy. In a letter to his friend and librettist Francesco Maria Piave –enrolled in the revolutionary army– he wrote these lines:

"The hour of [Italy's] liberation has sounded... You speak to me of music!! What's got into you? ...Do you believe I want to concern myself now with notes, with sounds? ...There must be only one music welcome to the ears of Italians in 1848. The music of the cannon!"

But the revolution failed. Pope Pio IX withdrew his support and the rebellious king, the aforementioned Carlos Alberto, had to abdicate in favour of his son Victor Manuel –the Austrian domination not changing one iota. Thus began a new era in which the maestro Verdi would become one of the heralds of the Italian yearning for freedom.

If in the past years Verdi's music was sung ostentatiously in the streets, and if in the theaters the libertarian songs were chanted and applauded standing next to Austrian officers with frowning brows, now it is his own name that would serve as an emblem of the revolutionary spirit. The second war of independence would be preceded by the acronym of his name the Italians painted on the walls of the streets: VIVA VERDI: Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia.
But it would be necessary to wait 11 years, until 1859, for the second Italian independence war to develop, this time successfully.

The popular trilogy
In the meantime, Verdi is going to compose eight operas, among which is included the famous "popular trilogy" consisting of the works Rigoletto, El Trovador and La Traviata, a clear sign that his music had taken another path. The defeat of the year 1848 had the effect that the patriotic choirs, the libertarian armies and the wailing of oppressed peoples lost their meaning entirely. The music of the trilogy's operas, in contrast, would sing the intimate conflicts and the main character’s situation would be the key foundation for building the story line and the dramatic conflicts. Therefore, these operas are also known as "character operas", because the characters are the ones that move Verdi, they are the protagonists and it is thanks to them also that these three works survive to this day.

Rigoletto
Released in 1851 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Rigoletto is the first opera of the trilogy. With libretto by Piave, and based in the work by Victor Hugo, Le roi s'amuse ("The king has fun" –the bad tongues would say that he is the only one who has fun), the work tells the highly pathetic story of the court jester Rigoletto who for protecting his daughter Gilda, by means of a curse will end up killing her with his own hands.

Bella figlia dell'amore (Beautiful daughter of love), the famous vocal quartet from Act III, has been described as "an intricate musical depiction of four personalities and their overlapping agendas". Indeed, the four singers sing two dialogues at the same time, but they are as couples singing in different places.

In a concert version, the soprano Anna Netrebko and the mezzo Elina Garança. The guys, Ramón Vargas and Ludovic Tézier. The quartet itself begins at the minute 1:30.

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Verdi and Giuseppina - La Traviata

The enthusiastic welcome given to Nabucco, which opened to Verdi the doors of both fame and Milanese high-society, was mainly concerned with one of the leading figures of La Scala, the singer Giuseppina Strepponi. In the first eight performances of Nabucco, she had been able to masterfully tackle a very difficult role.

Giuseppe and Giuseppina
By the time, Streponni was the lover of a famous tenor endowed with a sweet and languid voice who had become a specialist in dying on stage. The "tenor of the sweet death" –as it came to be known– was married with children. Consequently, for a sensitive but sensible woman like Giuseppina, there was no hope for a common history and a shared future.
It is not uncommon to find Verdi scholars suggesting that it was during Nabucco rehearsals when the first seeds of a romantic relationship between the maestro and Giuseppina were sown. But apparently, it was just an illusion.

Reunion in Paris
Five years later, in 1847, Giuseppe and Giuseppina were reunited in Paris. Comfortably sitting at the tables of the outdoor cafe Les Deux Magots, they celebrated the meeting by talking without reservations about their past lives, about the present, and about the future. Sipping his milky coffee, Giuseppe listened patiently to all that Giuseppina had to tell him. While the hot chocolate was cooling, intact, on the table, Giuseppina confessed that his relationship with the tenor of sweet death had been a tormented and unhappy experience. She had had two children with the tenor, but eventually, shortly after the premiere of Nabucco, she had broken up with him. As expected, all that resulted in her spirit destroyed and her voice damaged, after so much crying.

Giuseppe, a bit more cautious, roughly outlined his sad and humdrum life without Margherita, despite his personal success, with five new operas to his credit. When there was nothing to tell, they looked each other in the eye.
The coffee, or chocolate, or confidences, had done the miracle. Minutes after paying the bill, they left the Cafe deeply in love. During long months they lived their unsuspected idyll, in Paris, completely oblivious to the surrounding world.

At home
However, in the surrounding world, Giuseppe already enjoyed a sound financial independence. He had recently bought a farm in a town near Busetto. Up there he took Giuseppina. And laughter and murmurings began. The maestro Verdi, in the opinion of his countrymen, had returned to his land with a woman who was not his wife and, to top it all, was a singer. His ex-father-in-law also adhered to criticism and, though in a veiled way, scolded him. The maestro responded with a furious letter.
A year later, Verdi began to compose La Traviata.

La Traviata (say, "The Fallen Woman") is an opera in three acts based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, La Dame aux Camélias. Tells the story of Violeta, high-flying courtesan, who falls deeply in love with Alfredo, a young bourgeois. They start to live in sin, in a peaceful country house, outside Paris. Unexpectedly, Alfredo's father reaches there to demand Violeta end his relationship with his son because that improper way of living is harming his entire family. Violeta agrees but doing this she will lose the one and true love of her life, thus unleashing the tragedy that will end with her dying in the arms of Alfredo.

The premiere at the La Fenice opera house in Venice, 6 March 1853, was a complete failure, largely because of the singer who personified Violeta. The artist was 38 years old and somewhat overweight to credibly play a young woman who will die of consumption. That evening the audience laughed out loud with the final scene. However, the following year the work achieved an overwhelming success and since then its popularity has never waned.

Act II - Final scene
The outstanding concatenation of famous and beautiful arias, duets and choirs that make up the work, makes it difficult to choose a piece that stands out above the rest. We have chosen a set scene, where nobody on the stage is left without singing. It is the end of Act II. Playing Violet, the beautiful Russian soprano Anna Netrebko.

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Verdi: Nabucco - "Va, pensiero..."

In order to accompany the children who in the years to come would delight the world with their music, Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi came into this world in Roncalli, Italy, on October 10, 1813. Among his future colleagues were Mendelssohn, four years old; Chopin and Schumann, both three years old; and Franz Liszt, barely a two-year-old child.
But Giuseppe was not going to be a pianist but an opera composer.

From the humble village of Roncale, where his parents ran a small inn and a grocery store, he arrived in Milan in 1832 for further studies by means of a scholarship obtained through a wholesale trader who supplied the modest business of the family. However, the future composer was rejected at the Conservatory and had to take private lessons. Even so, the stay in Milan would be a significant experience in his life because it was there where he discovered the world of theatre and, thus, his true vocation.

The wholesaler Antonio Barezzi had been one of the first to notice the artistic talent of the little Giuseppe because, in addition to being a merchant, he held the position of director of the Philharmonic Society in the nearby town of Busseto.
Antonio had four daughters. The elder, named Margherita, soon caught Giuseppe's attention and in 1836 she accepted the proposal, after the composer got the positions of organist and teacher of Busseto's music school, on his return from Milan.

Giuseppe Verdi, c. 1840
(1813 - 1901)

But their life together turned out to be a single and great misfortune. In a very short time they suffered the death of their first son, and soon, the second one. Finally, in 1840, it was Margherita who passed away, at her twenty-six years.

For this reason, perhaps, the first great masterpiece of Verdi could only emerge two years later, in 1842, when the opera Nabucco –based on a biblical story that depicts the episode of the slavery of the Jews in Babylon–, was premiered at La Scala in Milan.

The work reveals in the third act a unique moment in the history of the opera. The choir sings the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, or Va, Pensiero sull'alli dorate (Fly, thought, on golden wings), a song of freedom that in its day encountered an unprecedented identification between audience and music, given the circumstances that the peoples of future Italy were going through under the Austrian domination.

Today, all peoples everywhere give a salute to ceremonies which commemorate great events by singing the chorus "Va, Pensiero". So has happened recently, and precisely, in Italy, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the nation's creation. In presence of Berlusconi, in 2011, conductor Riccardo Muti made a short speech protesting cuts in Italy's arts budget, then asked the audience to sing again "Va, Pensiero" in support of culture. Likewise, modestly, Chilean people celebrated in 1990 the end of the dictatorship, at the National Stadium in Santiago de Chile.

The rendition, by the Choir and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala, Milan, conducted by Riccardo Muti, includes the encore, that already has almost become a tradition. It is a remarkable experience to pay attention to the last few bars when the orchestra becomes silent and the voices continue to sing a cappella, dying down in a diminuendo that makes imperceptible the precise moment the sound gave way to silence.

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Chopin: Scherzo No 2, Op 31

Besides being a famous piano maker, Camile Pleyel was a remarkable pianist to the point that Chopin came to say of him: "Today there is only one man who knows how to play Mozart and this is Pleyel!". They met around 1832 in Paris and their friendship lasted for a lifetime.
Aware of Chopin's genius, once Pleyel knew him provided Frédérik with not one but two pianos: a large concert piano which dominated the small salon of Frédérik's apartment in Paris, and a black piano intended for his lessons. On two occasions Camile replaced the piano with a new one. First, in 1840 and then in 1848, when Frédérik was already very ill, on the verge of death. The devotee friend went so far as to send a piano to Mallorca while Chopin spent there a short time with George Sand.

So, it is not surprising that the piano Chopin selected for miss Maria Wodzinska, back in 1835, has been from the Pleyel company.
Every day of her life Maria would play on this piano, which remained always at her side, never abandoned. She even took it to Florence, where she went to live after marrying the administrator of her lands after she failed at his first marriage. She had earlier married a certain count Joseph Skarbeck, a neighbour from the countryside who, according to the words of a Chopin biographer, turned out to be a "degenerate" and from whom Maria divorced for "non-consummation of marriage".

Scherzo No 2, Op 31, in B flat minor
Composed and published in 1837, the year one after the dissolution of the love affair with Maria, is the most popular of his four scherzi (plural of scherzo). Chopin's idea of this musical form is utterly new. It is usually alleged to be a movement from a longer piece, say, a sonata, aimed at separating, for instance, the Allegro from the Adagio, or one of these from the end of the piece.

In Italian the word means joke, and therefore, the word is also used in indications of tempo or mood with which a piece should be played. Thus, scherzando indicates that a passage should be executed rather playfully.
Chopin's scherzo is different. First of all, it is a musical piece in its own right and has little playful. If they are jokes, they are terrifying ones. Written in ternary form (theme, 2nd theme, back to the first theme), its rhythmic structure is 3/4 and its speed is presto (very fast).

Zimerman's performance is outstanding. That's why we chose it, despite the abrupt end of the video. In truth, after the last high note we hear, there is no more music. That's all. The only thing missing is the subsequent silence, the loyal and inseparable ally in the experience of listening to music.

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Chopin: Ballade No 1 in G minor

Frédéric Chopin was certainly a person in frail health. So, because of the sort of agreement she had with him, mom Wodzinsky decided to learn a little more about Frédéric before giving her girl Maria away for marriage. What she discovered was not to her liking, or her husband's, dad Wodzinsky. Even though his everlasting good temper and cheerful mood, Frédéric suffered from an incurable disease: he was a "consumptive".

So, it was necessary to cancel the plan. But nobody spoke a clear word about it. The Wodzinskys just let things die down. Maria's letters became scarce. Those of mom Wodzinska became trivial, bearing a distant tone, to which Frédéric responded, unwillingly, "send my respects to Miss Maria". The longed-for invitation of the Wodzinskys to have Frédéric with them during the holidays, for the summer of 1837, never came to his hands.

And Chopin did not ask for explanations either. Neither Maria nor anyone else. He capitulated silently. His one and only complaint was not to respond to the last letter Maria sent him:

"I can only write these few words to thank you for the pretty cahier you sent me. I shall not say with what joy I received it. Words would not suffice. Please accept the assurance both of my sincere gratitude for it and of the lifelong attachment felt for you by all our family and particularly by your least gifted pupil and childhood friend. Adieu. Mamma sends you a tender kiss... Do not forget us.

Maria

And that was that! The last letter Chopin was to receive from Maria Wodzinska. When he realised that his hopes had come to nothing he took all the letters he had received from his fiancée and the other Wodzinskis and tied them together with a ribbon to form a bundle on which he wrote two words: Moja bieda ... My misfortune.

Ballade No. 1 in G minor
Chopin composed the first of his four ballades between the years 1835 and 1836, precisely the years in which his relationship with Maria Wodzinska went wonderfully. It was Chopin's favorite and so he told Schumann when he played it for him, after Schumann praised the performance and the work.

A piece of extreme hardship, it is, however, frequently performed in concerts for its lacerating lyricism and possibilities of brilliance for the virtuoso. More than once, some fragments of the work have become part of a movie soundtrack. The most recent occasion was in 2002 when we could listen to a curious three-minute "arrangement" in Roman Polanski's film, The Pianist. In the scene, a German officer asks the protagonist to play something on the piano in an abandoned house used as barracks by German soldiers.
In our modest opinion, the physical and emotional conditions in which the pianist actor finds himself, in the midst of war, without feeding for months, barely would have allowed him to play a traditional nursery rhyme.
The rendition is by the American pianist Krystian Zimerman. It's an irreproachable performance if we agree that some reason will he have had to take all the time he wanted before attacking the chords at the minutes 4:39 and 7:40.

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Chopin on vacation, 1835 – Nocturne 27-2

In the company of I Puritani's author, Vincenzo Bellini, who became his personal friend and whom he deeply admired, Frédéric Chopin travelled in July 1835 to the town of Enghien, in northern France, to "take the baths", an obligation that the disease imposed on all who suffered from tuberculosis, or anyone who was in the process of getting the condition.

A few days later he received a letter from his parents, announcing his forthcoming arrival in Karlsbad, about three days' journey away. Chopin had not seen Nicholas and his mother since he had left Warsaw for Vienna five years earlier. And it had been precisely his parents who had suggested to him not to return to Poland, after Warsaw capitulated before the advance of the Russian troops, on September 8, 1831.

The Chopin family in Karlsbad

A few hours apart, Frederic and his parents arrive in Karlsbad on the same day, August 16, 1835. It was to be three weeks of overflowing joy and emotional exaltation. Chopin Sr. scribbles a couple of notes to his daughters, who have remained in Warsaw, telling them of the joy. Frederic decides to add a postscript for his sisters:

"Our joy is inexpressible, we hug and we keep hugging each other ... We walk, we take your mother by the arm, we talk about you, we drink, we eat together, we joke, I feel full of joy..."

The stay came to an end, and his parents had to return to Warsaw. Neither they nor Frédéric knows it, but this is the final goodbye. They will not see each other again.

Shortly after the farewell, Frédéric set off to Paris. On the way, he stopped in Dresden to spend a few days with the Wodzinsky family. There, he found his childhood friends, the Wodzinsky children, and among them, the young Maria.

He spends a week with them and everything goes wonderfully. The three male siblings don't take a dim view of the fact that their former playmate, now a talented pianist and refined artist, may marry their sister Maria in the not too distant future.

It was the year of affection. In mid-October, Frédéric is back in Paris, blissful.

Nocturne Op. 27 N° 2, in D flat major
The two Nocturnes of Opus 27 were composed in 1835, in Paris, around the time of the trip to Karlsbad. The second of them is the most known and appreciated by the audiences.
In our modest opinion, this nocturne is probably the only one that can get started and maintain its simple beauty without harmonic change for four bars and then some. In the first 25 seconds, the left hand arpeggios do not leave the D-flat major chord.

The rendition, remarkable, is by the Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva.

Bellini: "I Puritani", famous arias

After having been on the verge of death in the spring of 1830 and after overcoming several crises, Vincenzo Bellini moved in 1831 to the beautiful town of Moltrasio to cope with his convalescence and enjoy an idyllic peace in the company of Giuditta Cantu. There, she gave him the love and care the other two Giuditta could not offer him for being in the backstage of Vincenzo's emotional scenario.

Having been brought back to life, he addressed the composition of La Sonnambula upon his return to Paris. The same year he premiered Norma, as well.
Four years later, in January 1835, what was to be his last opera, I Puritani (The Puritans) was premiered at the Teatro Italiano in Paris, the same theatre Rossini had been in charge of until the Revolution of 1830.

I Puritani's composition had begun in the summer of the previous year and passed parallel to a series of relapses in Bellini's disease. Seven months after the premiere, on September 23, 1835, Bellini's life was extinguished in a Parisian suburb, on the farm of a friend and assisted only by serfdom. He died at the age of 33 years.

I Puritani
A love melodrama in three acts, it takes place in a castle in Plymouth, England, in the midst of the struggle between the supporters of Oliver Cromwell –the Puritans–, and the royalist supporters of the House of Stuart. It all occurs in the year 1650.

Full of beautiful melodies with exquisite purity, it is at the same time a work extremely difficult for the singers. The aria Credeasi misera from act III demands the tenor –albeit optional– to sing a high note that moves away four notes beyond the upper note of his vocal range. And in A te o cara, also from the last act, the tenor is required to intone –now, imperatively– a C♯, two tones above his range.

In the following version of A te o cara, Luciano Pavarotti reaches a flawless C♯ at minute 2:50. The recording is from the year 1973. The soprano is Joan Sutherland.

Pavarotti, anew, in Credeasi misera, reaching the natural F (4:51). It seems as if a soprano had replaced him.

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Bellini's three Giuditta – "Casta Diva"

The first Giuditta was married and was called Cantú. She deeply loved bel canto and to a lesser extent her husband, who she had married at the age of 16, in 1819.
Simple background information. Nevertheless, it sheds light on the fact that nine years later, for the opening of the Carlo Felice Theater, in Genoa, she fell at the feet of the young author of the work, Vincenzo Bellini, born in Catania in 1801, child prodigy at age 7 and destined to be the last representative of romantic bel canto of the nineteenth century.

Besides being clandestine, the relationship with Giuditta was certainly inspiring as well as long, passionate and stormy. Vincenzo, whose passionate ardor cannot be hinted at the delicacy of his face, had experienced at the age of 20 the greatest love affair of his life. She was Maddalena Fumaroli, a young student who aroused in him a volcanic passion. Unfortunately, as legend has it, Maddalena's enthusiasm subsided and after a while, it completely went out.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835)

This early disenchantment would lead the composer, already mature, to choose for more than an option in love affairs. And Giuditta would have no alternative but to share.

For a few good years, Vincenzo had lived a long series of love affairs, in Milan and in Genoa. As a result of these idylls, for the premiere in 1831 of his great masterpiece, Norma, at La Scala in Milan, two other Giuditta were invited onto the stage, two old passions that Bellini had kept in a discreet background while Giuditta the first was at his side. They were the soprano Giuditta Pasta and the contralto Giuditta Grisi: a lucky coincidence which –when he fell ill in 1830– prevented him, delirious by fever, from confusing their names.

Norma - Casta Diva
In the first third of the 19th century, works set in La Galia or pre-Roman peoples became fashionable in Europe. Norma, opera set in the first century BC, is a good example. The protagonist of the same name is a druid priestess, fatally in love with a Roman consul. His Prayer to the Moon –Casta Diva– would become the most famous aria of Bellini's bel canto. Highly difficult and demanding, only a few singers in the 20th century have been able to deliver a performance at the height of the lyric spirit that the sovereign beauty of their melody entails. Notable exceptions were at the time, Maria Callas and Monserrat Caballé.

The American soprano Renée Fleming in a concert version, at the Palace of the Tsars, in St. Petersburg.

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Rossini: Cinderella - Sextet

Passionately endeavoured to compose hilarious works, Gioacchino Rossini had the misfortune to find love in a singer who sang serious operas, the mezzo Isabel Colbrand whom he married in 1822, after a long love affair. Colbrand, disqualified for the succession of frills in the style of Gioacchino, will give her very best for the composer to try a new path, this time oriented towards melancholy and expression of sentiments.

Thus, La Cenerentola (Cinderella) became the last opera buffa by the Italian author, with the exception of a comic opera "in the French style" composed during his stay in Paris.
Fortunately, before he became serious he had been showing off his extravagant humor for a long time.

The first occasion came in 1813 with the farce Il Signor Bruschino, in which a character —a secondary one, sure enough— has to sing a single important sentence in the whole work: "Padre mio, son pentito, tito, tito, tito, tito". (My father, I am sorry). Previously, in the overture, the second violins are required by the score to tap their bows, rhythmically, 32 times, on their lecterns.

After the opera seria Tancredi (because there were some, prior to Colbrand) maestro Gioacchino composed L'italiana in Algeri, an opera with a "Muslim" subject in the style of The Abduction from the Seraglio, by Mozart. At the end of the first act, the singers must "sing" onomatopoeias as bum-bum, din-din, tac-tac and others in combination with a devilish rhythm of orchestra and chorus. An aria for bass demands the singer to imitate with trills and chirps the flourishes of a soprano.

"Questo è un nodo avviluppato" - Sextet

La Cenerentola (Cinderella), surely the most famous opera of Rossini after The Barber of Seville, presents the story of Perrault somewhat modified, in an adult version and with a prince of flesh and blood instead of the fairy, and with a somewhat cloying Cinderella for her unlimited righteousness.
Organized, as usual, in two acts, maestro Gioacchino does not forget absurd situations here. For Act II he wrote a sextet in which all the characters must sing, syllable by syllable, the phrases "Questo è un nodo avviluppato, questo è un grupo rintraciatto" (This is a complicated knot, this is a very close mess), at the moment when the comedy of entanglements is at its climax.

Film version of 1981. Cenerentola: Frederica von Stade. Orchestra Teatro Alla Scala. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.

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Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto

When Brahms was fifteen years old his teacher Marxsen concluded his piano training, and the young musician had to start walking in the world by himself. But this did not mean Johannes to abandone his interest in composition and musical arrangements, while he continued to play in the Hamburg breweries —also occasionally in some house of the aristocracy— and to visit the Baumgartner piano house as often as possible in the absence of one of his own where to practice.

He would also go on concert tours, making up a violin and piano duo with one or the other of the two most renowned violinists of the time, Reményi and Joseph Joachim. With the latter he forged over the years a close friendship that, except for some ups and downs, did last a lifetime. A friendship that was likely built on the healthy obstinacy of Joachim so that Brahms would decide to pay a visit to the Schumans in Düsseldorf, that is, the composer Robert Schumann and his beautiful wife and famous pianist, Clara Schumann.

Brahms, c. 1872
(1833 - 1897)

Determined to take a step that could provide great encouragement to his artistic aspirations, after a few days of travel through the Rhine Valley, the young Johannes, aged 20, arrived in Düsseldorf and knocked on the Schumann's door one day in September 1853, a few months before Robert tried to commit suicide throwing himself, precisely, into the waters of the Rhine.

Preceded by several letters from Joachim, the welcome could not have been more friendly and warm, more simple and cordial. That night, Clara and Robert Schumann invited Johannes to dinner, thus beginning one of the most moving and disrupting relationships that has ever been seen between two artists.
But after the suicide attempt, on February 1854, Robert was admitted to a mental asylum, at his own request. Clara, aged 34, stayed alone, in charge of her eight children. She became the only breadwinner for them, through giving concerts and teaching.

Brahms, Clara's consolation
Aware of the attempted suicide and subsequent confinement, Brahms went to Clara to comfort her without asking anything in return. Initially. But the tavern artist, spoiled in his childhood by a ring of fallen women, stumbled here with a feminine soul and figure about which he was completely unaware. Before the kindness and sweetness of Clara, he was able to respond only in stammering tones, with singular signs of affection that until today we could not say if they were or not reciprocated.
For a while, being Robert in the mental institution, Johannes remained with Clara, almost in the role of a homeowner. But the unconfessed idyll would never be resolved, although it lasted more than forty years.

Concerto for violin and orchestra, in D major
Dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joachim, it was composed in the summer of 1878, probably in the Austrian Alps, in the village of Pörschach, where according to Brahms himself "melodies are everywhere and care must be taken not to step on them when walking". It premiered in Leipzig on January 1, 1879, with Brahms conducting and Joachim as the soloist.

Movements
The concerto follows the standard concerto form, with three movements in the pattern quick–slow–quick (the Allegro giocoso being the most popular):

00:00  Allegro non troppo
24:09  Adagio
32:14  Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace — Poco più presto

The rendition is by Hilary Hahn, with Paavo Järvi conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

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Brahms: Hungarian Dance No 5

Brahms, early childhood
Fruit of the union of Hersika, a seamstress, and Johann, an extroverted musician who earned his living playing in small orchestras that encouraged provincial life, Johannes Brahms had to leave school two years after he begun conventional studies. His parents had seen in the little boy, at the age of seven, a child prodigy whose musical skills, properly exploited, could take them out of the humble condition in which they lived, in the slums of Hamburg, in the late 1840s.

Brahms, aged 20 (1833 - 1897)

And fortune was on his side. A remarkable piano teacher named Cossel, whom Johann knew purely by chance, offered to teach Hannes — as he was called as a family —  without receiving anything in return. The child Brahms responded to this token of generosity by devoting himself to learning seriously, with tenacity and a large quota of personal sacrifice. Since there was no piano in Brahms' home, he had to contrive to get a kind bourgeois to lend him one. The piano maker Baumgartner, looking to the future, did his utmost to support the child.

Faced with the remarkable progress of the child, Professor Cossel decided Johannes continue his training with whom had been his own teacher, a renowned musical director that far exceeded the artistic stature of Cossel himself.
But this time the guidance had to be paid.

Brahms in the taverns
The increase in family income became an inescapable necessity. Fortunately, the solution was at hand. Johann, an expert in these matters, obtained for Hannes a job in a tavern in the port neighbourhoods of Hamburg.

There, sitting at the piano, little ten-year-old Johannes had the mission of delighting with light melodies the ears of drunken sailors and tender prostitutes. If his audience burned with enthusiasm, he should also play the violin, the violoncello and the horn, instruments that, luckily, he also handled with dexterity.

This pitiful story — which the composer himself undertook to divulge — did not prevent, however, that adult Brahms could later compose melodies full of joy, prominent among them the highly celebrated Hungarian Dances, twenty-one pieces of much liveliness and brilliance, originally written for piano four hands and composed during a period that goes from 1852 to 1869.

Hungarian Dance No. 5, in F sharp minor
The dances were the most profitable for Brahms, and later were arranged for many instruments and ensembles. He also arranged the first ten dances for solo piano, the dance No 5 becoming the most popular. It is based on some czardas written by another composer, which Brahms mistakenly thought they were folk songs.

A version for solo piano, by American pianist Caroline Clipsham.

Below, Bill Edwards, former champion of the USA Old-Time Piano Playing Championship, trying to revalidate the title with a novel version halfway between ragtime and charleston.

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Abbess Liszt: Piano Concerto No 1

Prince Nikolaus was a head-to-toe selfish man. Divorced and remarried, he was not willing for his former wife to do the same. As soon as he learned of Franz Liszt's purpose to marry Carolyne de Sayn-Wittgenstein, he devoted himself full-time to lobby every Holy See's authorities to prevent it. The visit of the Pope's emissary to Carolyne announcing that the marriage authorization was to be revised was the fruit of all his intrigues.

But such amount lobbying efforts had an impact on his state of health. In 1864, the prince left this world. It was the ideal occasion for Liszt and Carolyne to unite in holy matrimony, without any obstacle. But at the same time the love relationship was fading away —Franz, believing that he was not up to that sort of things; Carolyne, just about to be convinced that such an accumulation of difficulties was but a warning of future failure.

This being the case, Liszt made the decision of his life, surprising everyone, friends, colleagues and the audiences. In the year 1865, at 54 years old, the famous pianist and composer was given the "minor religious orders", thus becoming the respected Abbess Liszt. Nonetheless, this did not prevent him from continuing with his career, in his well-known areas of pianist, composer ... and lover, since legend says that he had more than one affair after being given religious orders.

But Franz never stopped maintaining contact with Princess Carolyne. For several years they would exchange thousands of letters, until the day Liszt passed away, on July 31, 1886. Six months later, without fuss, Carolyne went after him.

Piano Concerto N ° 1 in E flat major
In the course of his long life, Liszt wrote two concerts for piano and orchestra. The most celebrated and the one that has most attracted the attention of the public and performers is the first of them. It took about 26 years for Liszt to compose it. The first sketches date back to 1830 when Franz was only 19 years old. In the course of the composer's long and lively life, the concert No. 1 would undergo a series of modifications, culminating, apparently, in 1853 with the latest changes. Two years later the concerto premiered in Weimar with the composer at the piano and his friend Hector Berlioz conducting. With a couple of further modifications, it was published in 1856.

The concerto lasts about 20 minutes and consists in four movements played with no interruption.

The outstanding Argentine pianist Martha Argerich is accompanied by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

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Franz Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No 1

Princess Carolyne was undoubtedly a refined princess but she used to smoke cigars and talk a lot, as the composer and pianist Hans von Büllow, Liszt's son-in-law, married to his daughter Cosima, told everyone. (Perhaps because of being that talkative, Cosima left him later to live life with the love of his life, 25 years her senior, Richard Wagner.)
Apart from that, Princess Carolyne was indeed a good woman who devoted her life to Franz accomplishments, including in that commitment the remote monitoring of the education of the composer's children, besides the wise suggestion that he will abandon the concert tours to devote all his energies to composition.

While all this was going on, Carolyne's request for divorce from her prince and army officer Nikolaus, still awaited the decision of the Holy See, an issue that Carolyne will have favorably resolved only in 1855, ten years after the process started and shortly after Nikolaus had remarried. But, one thing was becoming divorced, obtaining permission to get married, quite another. The church ruled that Nikolaus was right to do so (because he was a Protestant) but Carolyne did not, showing little regard for the princess's devotion to theological studies.

The permission to marry was finally granted to Carolyne in 1860, five years after the divorce. Franz wanted to get married right then, but she suggested to do it in Rome the following year, by the time the composer turned 50, on October 22, 1861.
And so they agreed. But on the 21st, the eve of the wedding, an emissary of the Pope knocked on the door of Carolyne's house in Rome, to announce that a new revision of the procedure was required.

The Mephisto Waltz
The piece popularly known as Mephisto Waltz is the first of four waltzes with the same title composed by Liszt at different times. The piano version – there is one for the orchestra and one for two pianos – was born around 1860 although its harmonic innovations presage the spirit of the music of future composers as Ravel or Prokofiev.
Consequently, I advise patience and willingness in listening to the first two and a half minutes, because it hardly can be assumed as music from the mid-nineteenth century. There are no Love Dream or Consolations here, but Liszt and romanticism, although it may not seem so at the beginning.
With that in mind, enjoy the following comment on Youtube on this piece, a somewhat different opinion about Lisztian "bravery":
"I saw this shit in a bugs bunny episode ... and the piano exploded".

The rendition is by the Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky.

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Franz Liszt: Consolation No 3

Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein with her daughter Marie in 1840

The princess

Many years ago, back in the fourth century, a disciple of the philosopher and theologian St. Augustine dared to ask him what God used to do before creating the universe. Augustine did not hesitate and, impassively, answered that along with creating the universe God had also created time.

The ingenious and accurate answer remained for centuries as immovable truth attracting the attention of theologians and philosophers, among them, Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who as a pioneer woman of the theology in the XIX century, decided to sink the tooth to this and other matters.

In the mid-1840s, already separated from her husband and officer of the Russian army Prince Nikolaus, Princess Carolyne used to spend all the day long in his native Kyiv to unravel the questions and answers that both Augustine and the distinguished doctor of theology St. Thomas Aquinas had been raising centuries ago.

Franz Liszt visits Kyiv
In the summer of 1847, while working on those matters, she learned that the internationally-famed composer and pianist Franz Liszt was in Kyiv as part of a concert tour throughout Russia, in addition to Austria and Hungary.
We do not know the details but we may assume that Carolyne attended one of the concerts, after which she would have begun to question the amount of time she spent studying Augustine and Thomas. The fact is that Carolyne left Kyiv and went to live with Franz in the city of Weimar, where the famous pianist resided serving as Kapellmeister of the court.

The relationship, extremely complex due to the repeated and unsuccessful attempts to get Carolyne's divorce from the Holy See, will last for fourteen years.

Consolation No. 3, in D-flat major
Composed between 1849 and 1850, at the height of the love affair, the "Consolations", though very typical of Liszt's musical universe, tend to be related to the aesthetics of Chopin's nocturnes, for its spirit and its non-spectacular technique.
Consolation No. 3 is the one that has most attracted the favour of the public, of the six that make up the group.

The rendition, outstanding, is by Tiffany Poon when she was eleven.

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Robert Schumann and Clara: Piano concerto

Robert and Clara Schumann, the long courtship

"So, one little 'yes' is all you want! What an important little word it is! Surely a heart so full of inexpressible love as mine can utter it freely. I can indeed say it. [...] Your proposal seems daring to me, but love takes small heed of danger, and again I say 'yes'..."

This is how Clara Wieck responded to Robert Schumann's request to hand old Wieck a letter from him requiring the paternal blessing of the lovers' union.
It was a very respectful letter but Clara's father rejected it.
That year, 1837, Clara was in Dresden by order of Wieck. In October she went to Leipzig to give a concert in which she played the Schumann Symphonic Studios, but the lovers could barely see each other. Clara had to leave Leipzig right away. A seven-month tour had been arranged for her.

But Robert was not discouraged. And Clara either. Their relationship, although of a strictly epistolary nature, remained solid, unbreakable. So, in 1839, Schumann made another attempt to get Wieck's approval and wrote him a new letter:
"Two years have passed since my first request, you doubted that she and I could remain faithful ... nothing can shake our faith in future happiness ... Give us peace."
Old Wieck refused again.

Faced with this frank and inconsiderate opposition, Clara and Robert decided to follow the legal route and go to court to get married without Wieck's approval. It resulted in an ordeal. Wieck employed all kinds of tricks to prevent or delay the decision, going so far as to accuse Schumann of being a hopeless alcoholic. Robert was forced to apply for an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Jena, which, if granted, could be presented to the court as proof of his integrity. Mendelsohnn, a friend of the couple, testified in his favour.

Nevertheless, with the accusation of alcoholism Wieck had done himself a disservice. It worked clearly against him and at the beginning of August 1840, the court ruled in favour of the lovers. Robert was in Leipzig but Clara was on tour, working. They met in Weimar and contracted the marriage near Leipzig, on September 12.

In her diary, Clara left us her impressions of that day:
"...We were married at Schönefeld at ten o'clock. [...] There was a little dancing, no excessive gaiety, but every face shone with real satisfaction. The weather was lovely. Even the sun, which had hidden his face for many days, shed his warm beams upon us as we drove to church as if to bless our union. It was a day without a jar, and I may thus enter it in this book as the fairest and most momentous of my life."

The couple gave birth to eight children but happiness would last only 14 years. In 1854 Robert began to suffer hallucinations and ravings. After a frustrated suicide attempt on the Rhine – being rescued by boatmen and taken home – he was taken to an asylum for the insane, where he will remain for two and a half years. Clara wasn't able to visit him because, according to doctors, he could get worse. Clara will see him for one and last time two days before his death, in the company of Brahms. Her diary includes an extensive and detailed account of this last meeting, which ends with these words:
"May God grant me the strength to live without him." The favour was granted: Clara will live 40 further years.

Concert in A minor
In 1841 Schumann wrote a Concert Fantasy that found no publisher. Four years later he added two new movements to the Fantasy: Intermezzo and Finale. Thus was born the Concerto for piano and orchestra in A minor, the only one written by Schumann for this instrument. His first public performance arose, of course, from the hands of Clara Schumann, in December 1845.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro affettuoso - Andante espressivo - Allegro
15:40  Intermezzo. Andante grazioso
21:25  Allegro vivace

The rendition is by the Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich, who managed to play this Concert for a radio station in Buenos Aires when she was ten. Riccardo Chailly conducts the Gewandhausorchester.

Clara and Robert Schumann, the lovers

At the age of nine, Clara Wieck played the piano extremely well. Therefore, it is not surprising that at 13 she was invited to Zwickau to give a concert. There, she played at the piano the sketches of a symphony whose author was the brilliant pupil of his father and companion of homely nights, Robert Schumann. The young composer had begun to notice that the feelings the young pianist inspired him seemed to go beyond the natural affection for the daughter of his teacher.

Clara didn't know it yet, and much less, that years later her repertoire will not be able to do without Romanza N ° 2, her favorite of the cycle of Three Romances, opus 28, composed by Schumann in 1839.

Romanza N ° 2 - Piano: J. Utuk (2:48)


One of the first news about the relationship Clara and Robert had established can be found in Schumann's "courtship-book", which reads:

"Painful farewells: in November 1835, after the first kiss on the stairs of Wieck's house, when Clara left to Zwickau."

Robert was 25 years old. Clara, 16, had taken a trip to give another concert, this time without music by Schumann, even though he had just composed this year his most famous piece for piano: Carnival, op 90.

Clara's father did oppose an obstinate resistance to courtship because he did not want the marriage to interrupt his daughter's promising piano career, especially if the suitor, still his best pupil, was only emerging as a budding composer.

Friedrich Wieck went so far as sending his daughter to Dresden, prohibiting her, under threat, any contact with Robert. But the lovers will find a way to communicate by letter with the help of a discreet go-between. When Wieck got to learn about it, he demanded Schumann to abandon any illusion, once and for all.

Those were difficult moments. Robert fell into a deep emotional crisis from which he will only recover with the help of music. Great compositions of his catalogue came to light in 1837. Fantasiestücke is one of them, a small cycle of 8 short pieces, beginning with the beautiful melody "Des Abends" (Sunset), performed here live (audio) by the maestro Arthur Rubinstein:

In the summer of that year, Robert set out to clarify his relationship status by asking Clara for her disposal to hand Wieck a letter from him:

"Are you loyal and true as ever? ...because[ the stoutest heart would be disconcerted when left without a word from the dearest thing in the world, which is what you are to me... Let me have just one word, 'yes', from you if you are willing to hand your father a letter from me in your birthday... He is kindly disposed to me just now, and will not repulse me if you plead for me too..."

Clara's response will not delay...
(...to be continued...)

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Schubert: Schwanengesang - Serenade

In his thirty-one short years, Franz Schubert composed about 1,500 pieces. A good number are lieder, about 800, for one voice or for several voices, accompanied by piano or other instruments. The word lied (lieder is the plural in German) has no translation into English, but it can be roughly likened to "art song". Discounted the artistic and musical value, the difference with our "songs" is that the verses come from great poets (Göethe, Heine, Schiller) or from Franz's friends who at that time could exhibit certain renown as such.
In less than four or five minutes, they could be sung one after the other in social gatherings around good wine, music and literature, at Schubert's friend houses, friendly get-togethers that later were called "Schubertiades".

Setting Goethe to music
In 1814, at age 17, young Franz had begun to perform as an assistant at the school his father was managing in those days. In charge of the kindergarten class, he was certainly not a great teacher. By then, his soul and spirit were definitely with poetry and music. The second half of 1814 and the whole year 1815 are fertile in the production of works. He met the poet Mayrhofer, whom he had already "musicalized"; also wrote one of the most brilliant works of the period with text by Goethe, who Franz deeply admired.

One of his friends came to the decision of making contact with Goethe to let him know about this lad who, based on his verses, did compose wonderful music. He sent to the German poet a series of lieder inspired by his texts, requesting their approval so that they could be dedicated to him:

"The undersigned allows himself to steal with these lines some moments of your precious time ... the poems ... have been put into music by a 19-year-old composer ... (and he wishes that) he was allowed to humbly consecrate this collection to Your Excellency ... the young artist would be happy to deserve approval ... I beg you to be extremely polite to favour me with your response ".
Goethe did not respond.

Ten years later, in 1825, the composer himself did send to Goethe his poems translated into the pentagram. The poet turned a deaf ear to it anew. Little Franz had only three years to live.

"Ständgen" –Serenade– from the Schwanengesang cycle, D. 957
Schubert's famous Serenade is one of the 14 lieder that make up the Schwanengesang cycle (The Swan Song), 1828, and published posthumously (hence the title of the cycle). It bears the number four and is composed of verses from the poet Rellstab, the same one that reportedly gave the sobriquet to the sonata "Moonlight", by Beethoven.

This is a version for violin and piano with the masterful performance of the violinist of Ukrainian origin Mischa Elman (1891-1967). We assume this is a recording from the twenties or thirties, for the rare flavor of the background noise on a format prior to vinyl.

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Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No 2

The affair with Lola Montez
In 1842, Liszt was appointed Kapellmeister Extraordinaire at Weimar, but this flamboyant title did not prevent him from continuing his brilliant virtuoso career by offering concerts all over Europe. In February 1844, the worldwide renowned pianist visited Dresden for the umpteenth time, receiving a delirious reception, as usual. This encouraged him to take a short trip to Dessau, where fate had prepared a surprise for him.

Lola Montez, the famous "Spanish" dancer of Irish origin, was in Dessau trying to make herself known as a dancer, or courtesan, or whatever. At age 26, the erotic aura that surrounded her did allow the girl to ask for that and much more. For Franz, seeing her and loving her were one and the same.

Lola Montez (1818 - 1861)

On February 25, Liszt returned to Dresden and brought Lola with him. The room in the hotel where he was staying became a silent witness of a passionate encounter. The next morning, Franz got up early because he had to work. He was still committed to giving three further concerts in Dresden.

That night, the maestro feared for his reputation. Reportedly, before leaving he locked Lola in the room and put down a considerable sum of money to repair the damage the dancer was going to cause when she realized she had been abandoned.
The news arrived in Paris and sealed the definitive break with his faithful Marie d'Agoult.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Published in 1847, the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is the most famous of the 19 rhapsodies written by Franz Liszt on Hungarian themes. It offers, without a doubt, an extraordinary opportunity for the brilliance of the performer, who is demanded great skill and dexterity. Thus, it is not surprising that, after listening to the maestro, an avalanche of damsels wanted to pounce on this mid-nineteenth century idol to greet him, hug him and something else, if things did go well.

At the piano, Alfred Brendel. It's the most serious "video" I found, due to the aforementioned possibility of showing off. Brendel offers the right pauses, the precise speed, the correct balance between music and paraphernalia.

And now, I turn again to the insurmountable comedian talent of the Danish maestro, Victor Borge, pianist, orchestra conductor and comedian who, with the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 also tries to show off but through jokes.

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Schumann's "Träumerei"

Perhaps as an early foreshadowing of the madness that would lead him to death, Robert Schumann decided at age 22 to disable the middle finger of his right hand to provide greater independence and agility to the remaining four. He kept it immobilized for long enough to prove, at the end, that the paralysis was irreversible and his bet on a career as a concert performer had broken down beyond repair, as a result of an unfortunate decision, to say the least.

Seeing severed his aspiration as a pianist, he will choose to compose.
This is one of its fruits, perhaps the most famous within his piano miniatures:

Träumerei (1838) - Piano: Valentina Lisitsa

Born in 1810 (Zwickau, Saxony), the same year as Chopin, a year before Mendelssohn and one after Liszt, at age eighteen Robert Schumann left to Leipzig to study law at the direction of his father, even though he had already shown some talent for musical composition, with a couple of pieces to his credit. For two years he would alternate his law studies with his love of music, but after attending a Paganini concert in 1830 decided to take the final step: his true passion is music and so he confesses in writing to his mother, being honest with her as a good teenage son:

"Choosing in life a direction diametrically opposed to the first education and destiny is not very easy and requires patience, confidence ... I am still in the middle of imaginative youth, which can still be cultivated and ennobled by art; also arrived at the certainty that with application and patience, and guided by a good teacher, in six years I will be able to compete with any pianist ... "

So, Robert decided to appear before the famous music teacher, Friedrich Wieck, whom he already knew. He was taken to test for six months, and stayed at the Wieck house, as was the custom. There he rediscovered Clara, the teacher's daughter, who at age thirteen played the piano as God intended. Robert got dazzled, and only God knows if he did not decide right there to emulate her skills, no matter what.
The little piano girl grew older. Years later, turned into a celebrity, she will live, along with Robert, a love story full of turbulence in the purest romantic style.

The short piece we are listening, named "Träumerei" (Dreaming), takes the number 7 in a series of 15 grouped in Opus 81 with the title "Scenes from Childhood". His remarkable lyricism has led to try out numerous transcriptions for violin, viola, or cello, with accompanying piano. Regardless of the tutus and the roses in bloom, the video presents a very inspired version.

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