Clara & Robert Schumann Piano Concertos

Clara & Robert Schumann Piano Concertos

5054197296253 (Warner Classics, CD)

FIRST RELEASE (3 February 2023)

Playing time: 57'22"
Tracks: 7
Booklet pages: 24
℗ 2023 Parlophone Records Limited
© 2023 Parlophone Records Limited
Main country of recording: Germany
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Clara & Robert Schumann Piano Concertos published on 7 April 2023

Beatrice Rana, piano
Chamber Orchestra of Europe (tracks 1-6)
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor (tracks 1-6)

Clara Wieck-Schumann (1819-1896):

Piano Concerto No 1 in A minor, Op 7
1 Allegro maestoso
2 Romanze: Andante non troppo con grazia
3 Finale: Allegro non troppo - Allegro molto

Robert Schumann (1810-1856):

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 54
4 Allegro affettuoso
5 Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso
6 Allegro vivace

Robert Schumann, arranged for solo piano by Franz Liszt:

7 Widmung, Op 25 No 1 ('Liebeslied', S 566)

Since the LP era, the recording industry has frequently paired Robert Schumann's only piano concerto with another famous Romantic concerto written in the key of A minor - Edvard Grieg's. Beatrice Rana has instead chosen to programme Robert's work with Clara's only piano concerto (and her only composition for orchestra). Also written in A minor, Clara's composition predates Robert's by ten years: a sixteen-year-old Clara premiered it in Leipzig in 1835 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. When Robert's concerto was performed for the first time in Dresden in 1845, Clara was once again the soloist. Partnered with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rana complements the concerti with Liszt's transcription for solo piano of Robert's song Widmung, an exuberant dedication of love, composed in the year of Robert and Clara's marriage.

Recorded: 8-10 July 2022 at the Festspielhaus und Festspiele, Baden-Baden, Germany.