| Royal Classics |  |
| Disc No: ROY6455 | |
| Price: Sek. 51 |
Schumann's Carnaval began life during one of this amorous episodes with a pupil of his future father-in-law Friedrich Wieck. For this young lady he wrote music based on available letters of his name SCHA (E flat, C, B, A, when translated to musical notation), and these letters formed an anagram of her home town, Asch. Schumann included many cryptic messages in his music: experts are still puzzling over some of them. Several of the pieces in Carnaval represent characters of the commedia dell'arte (Nos 2, 3, 15) and there are musical tributes to Chopin and Paganini (Nos 12, 16). Nos 5 and 6 represent the two sides of Schumann's own nature, Eusebius the thoughtful, contemplative man, Florestan the wild outgoing personality he occasionally paraded. Chiarina (No 11) is a portrait of Clara, Schumann's future wife and the young daughter of Wicek, while Estrella (No 13) was the original object of the music whom the composer abandoned in favour of Clara. The rest of the movements have private of obscure relevance, and the finale is a grand march of the Davidsbündler, an imaginary association of art-lovers, against the Philistines and their anti-art activities. The Suite was completed in 1835 when Clara was 16. She was impressed, but her father Friedrich perceived mental instability in Schumann (as evidenced in the Eusebius-Florestan conflict) and was implacably opposed to any liaison between his daughter and the composer. Not until she came of age did the marriage take place. It ended in 1856 with Schumann's death in an asylum. Chopin's enormous output of piano solos ranges in mood from the placid nocturnes to the energetic and sometimes disturbing, almost sinister, scenes created in the Fantasie and the Scherzo No 2. Tne composer's introspective character is clearly heard in his music but his phenomenal pianistic technique finds its outlet in frequent displays of virtuosity. Robert Dearling. Discontinued |
| Name: Schumann Carnaval | |
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| Order 1 CD In stock |
| Composer | Opus | Produced | Music | Key | Performer |
| Chopin, Frederic | Op.15 no.2 | 1981 | Nocturne no.5 | F sharp major | Youri Egorov, Piano |
| Chopin, Frederic | Op.23 | 1981 | Ballade no. 1 | G minor | |
| Chopin, Frederic | Op.27 no.2 | 1981 | Nocturne no.8 | D flat major | |
| Chopin, Frederic | Op.31 | 1981 | Scherzo no. 2 | B flat minor | |
| Chopin, Frederic | Op.49 | 1981 | Fantasie | F minor | |
| Chopin, Frederic | Op.72 no.1 | 1981 | Nocturne no.19 | E minor | |
| Schumann, Robert | Op.9 no.1-20 | 1981 | Carnaval |