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Clara’s “Scherzo” Op.10 dates from 1844. With
the exception of this piece, all the others were composed when the
Schumann’s mutual passion was at its height. Robert’s
curious wedding present to his wife was a cycle of Lieder, “Dichterliebe”
(The Poet’s Love) Op.48, consisting of 16 poems by Heinrich
Heine taken from his “Buch der Lieder” (Song Book),
where a man tells how his love has died, ostensibly because of his
beloved’s infidelity and cruelty (he goes so far as to call
her a ‘snake’). He swears to bury all his memories in
a coffin and throw it into the Rhine. A strange way indeed to toast
the future happiness of such an ardently desired union ! And stranger
still, the structure of the compositions for piano in the two pieces
by Robert Schumann played here by Mara Dobresco, coming from a theme
originally composed by Clara ; they recall her marked predilection
for melodies in a descending scale. The perfect harmony and emotional
force of both pieces are already far too well known for us to draw
attention to them yet again – the listener is carried along
irresistibly from start to finish (the second “Fantasiestück”
is perhaps the most tormented score the artist ever penned).
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