Schumann Carnaval Op.9 Papillons Op.2 Sonata in G Minor Op.22 JON NAKAMATSU
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SCHUMANN Carnaval op.9 Papillons op.2 Sonata in G minor op.22 JON NAKAMATSU 1 SCHUMANN Carnaval / Papillons / Sonata in G Minor / Jon Nakamatsu HMU 907503 © harmonia mundi ROBERT (1810-56) SCHUMANN Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 (1833-38) 18’13 Carnaval, Op. 9 (1832-35) 31’56 1 I. So rasch wie möglich 6’05 18 I. Préambule 2’24 2 II. Andantino. Getragen 5’17 19 II. Pierrot 2’26 3 III. Scherzo. Sehr rasch und markiert 1’34 20 III. Arlequin 1’03 4 IV. Rondo. Presto – Prestissimo 5’15 21 IV. Valse noble 2’11 Papillons, Op. 2 (1829-31) 15’02 22 V. Eusebius 1’36 23 VI. Florestan ’55 5 Introduzione ’13 24 VII. Coquette 1’37 6 No. 1 ’41 25 VIII. Réplique 1’12 7 No. 2: Prestissimo ’28 26 IX. Papillons 8 No. 3 1’00 ’48 9 No. 4 1’02 27 X. Lettres dansantes ’56 10 No. 5 ’56 28 XI. Chiarina 1’36 11 No. 6 ’58 29 XII. Chopin 1’26 12 No. 7: Semplice ’47 30 XIII. Estrella ’28 13 No. 8 1’12 31 XIV. Reconnaissance 1’50 14 No. 9: Prestissimo ’45 32 XV. Pantalon et Colombine ’57 15 No. 10: Vivo 2’05 33 XVI. Valse allemande 1’02 16 No. 11 2’52 34 XVII. Paganini 1’29 17 No. 12: Finale 2’05 35 XVIII. Aveu 1’06 36 XIX. Promenade 2’36 37 XX. Pause ’18 38 XXI. Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins 4’00 JON NAKAMATSU piano 2 SCHUMANN Carnaval / Papillons / Sonata in G Minor / Jon Nakamatsu HMU 907503 © harmonia mundi Between Form and Shadow ‘The magic of music is so strong, getting stronger, that it these musical postcards in a specific world. Papillons was programmatic elements of Schumann’s other piano works are must break the shackles of other art forms.’ (‘So stark ist der begun in Heidelberg and some of its movements refer back to less immediately apparent. The first movement has an almost Zauber der Musik und, immer mächtiger werdend, musste er earlier polonaises and waltzes. The title, however, chosen in Bachian poise, though the candour of the Lieder-like Andantino jede Fessel einer andern Kunst zerreißen.’) These words by Leipzig, alludes to a masked ball from the final chapters of Jean in the context of the full sonata soon belies any claims to E.T.A. Hoffmann tell of the intellectual schism in music at the Paul’s Flegeljahre. Schumann responds with terpsichorean abstraction and ‘shackles of other art forms’. Given the beginning of the 19th century. On one side of the divide stood the fragments of musical memory. When performed together, they persistently fevered mood, the impulsive figure of Florestan can abstract, seemingly self-sufficient, referring just to itself: on the coalesce into a larger though still delicate picture, which draws surely not be far away. Schumann’s temperamental counterpart other was the programmatic, invoking extra-musical ideas. Yet us into the world of Schumann and Jean Paul’s imagination. is equally manifest in the virtuoso writing. The first movement Hoffmann provided such a wealth of philosophies and worlds in That realm beyond the notes became ever more is marked ‘as quickly as possible’, though Schumann insists on his own creative writing that he actually encouraged composers fundamental to Schumann’s music in the mid-1830s. Guided yet faster tempi towards the end of the movement. The marking to explore further the possibilities of programme music. One of by Hoffmann’s ‘serapiontic principle’, which recommended a of ‘rasch’ is repeated in the scherzo. But perhaps the greatest the figures drawn to Hoffmann’s fantastical world was Robert systematic organisation of aesthetic ideas, Schumann framed indication of extra-musical elements weaving their way through Schumann, whose early piano works reveal a deeply creative his friends, characters and Doppelgängers within what he called this piece is to be found in Clara’s letter to Schumann when imagination, as well as the bewildering workings of Schumann’s the Davidsbund. The idea first appeared in print in an article she heard it in its final form: ‘Your whole being is so clearly mind. published at the beginning of 1834. Positioned at the juncture expressed in it’. Given that Schumann had already described In 1831, the year in which Papillons was published, between reality and imagination, this band of brothers, united himself as both Florestan and Eusebius, those figures must be Schumann wrote in his diary that it seemed ‘as if my objective against musical and cultural philistinism, soon permeated his here too, somewhere between form and shadow. self wanted to separate completely from my subjective self, music. or as if I stood between my appearance and my actual being, Schumann invoked the Davidsbund in his Piano Sonata No. – Gavin PLuMLEY between form and shadow’. (‘als wolle sich mein objektiver 1 in F-sharp minor by means of a dedication to Clara Schumann Mensch vom subjektiven ganz trennen oder als stünde ich from ‘Florestan und Eusebius’. The sonata, begun in 1832, was zwischen meiner Erscheinung und meinem Sein, zwischen completed in 1835, around the same as Carnaval. This work, a Gestalt und Schatten.’) The impression of a Doppelgänger, cited complex meeting of musical cryptograms, Schubertian tributes, in Heinrich Heine’s poetry, as well as in Hoffmann and Jean a dedication to a contemporary violinist, quotations from Pap- Paul (another of Schumann’s literary obsessions), conveys both illons and other latent literary and musical references, is more the mental health problems that beleaguered Schumann and like a symphonic poem. It revolves around four notes: E-flat, C, his imaginative world beyond the everyday. Over the ensuing B and A, spelling S-C-H-A in German notation or, reordered, decade, that ‘subjective self’ developed and came to dominate. A-S-C-H (with the A-S occasionally indicated by an A-flat). The Schumann gave creative monikers to his immediate significance of these codes has been much debated and they circle of friends and associates. Clara, later Schumann’s wife, perhaps refer to Schumann’s initials (his middle name was Alex- was known as ‘Cilia’ (or ‘Chiara’), while her father Friedrich ander) or the hometown of his then beloved Ernestine von Fric- Wieck became ‘Meister Raro’. One of the servants in the Wieck ken (Asch, now Aš in the Czech Republic). The cipher may also household, with whom Schumann had an early relationship, mark Ash Wednesday as the end of Fasching (the Austro-Ger- was also given a name. In these guises Schumann’s friends met man carnival season). Regardless of the meaning, the code is major figures from musical history in both an experimental but the core of the work’s musical material, generating motifs and incomplete novel called Die Wunderkinder and in his music. the tonal structure, though not all of the movements derive from The composer also had his own alter egos called Florestan the sequence. The Préambule, for instance, is taken from an and Eusebius: Florestan was outspoken and impulsive, while incomplete set of variations based on Schubert’s Trauerwalzer, Eusebius was more introverted. Schumann’s fascination with while the various pairings of Pierrot and Arlequin, Eusebius and these characters ran right through his music and writing of Florestan and Coquette and Réplique underline the intrinsic the 1830s, providing support during blacker times as well as a contrasts evident in Schumann’s Davidsbund. highly resourceful representation of the dialectical oppositions The composition of the Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor within his music. spanned much of the 1830s. The slow movement was written Papillons marked the beginning of Schumann’s career- at the beginning of the decade and, while the majority of the long love of character pieces. Beethoven had written Bagatelles, work was completed in 1835, Schumann substituted the present Schubert had offered Impromptus, but Schumann grounded Rondo for an earlier Presto passionato in 1838. Here, the 3 SCHUMANN Carnaval / Papillons / Sonata in G Minor / Jon Nakamatsu HMU 907503 © harmonia mundi Entre la forme et l’ombre « La magie de la musique est si puissante que, dût-elle grandir Papillons marque le début de la passion de Schumann motifs et de la structure tonale, bien que tous les mouvements encore, elle briserait les entraves d’un autre art. » (« So stark pour les pièces de caractère, passion qui ne faiblira d’ailleurs ne découlent pas de la séquence. Préambule, par exemple, est ist der Zauber der Musik und, immer mächtiger werdend, jamais. Beethoven composa des Bagatelles et Schubert, des repris d’un ensemble (inachevé) de variations sur Trauerwalzer musste er jede Fessel einer andern Kunst zerreißen. ») Cette Impromptus, mais Schumann ancra ces vignettes musicales de Schubert, tandis que les divers duos : Pierrot et Arlequin, affirmation d’E.T.A. Hoffmann reflète le schisme intellectuel du dans un univers bien particulier. Certains mouvements de Eusebius et Florestan, Coquette et Réplique, soulignent les monde musical au début du XIXe siècle. D’un côté, l’abstraction, Papillons font référence à des polonaises et des valses plus contrastes intrinsèques manifestes au sein du Davidsbund. apparemment auto-suffisante et auto-référente ; de l’autre, anciennes. La composition de l’œuvre commença à Heidelberg La composition de la Sonate pour piano No. 2 en sol la démarche programmatique, faisant appel à des références et se poursuivit à Leipzig. Le titre fait allusion au bal masqué mineur occupa une grande partie des années 1830. Le extra-musicales. Hoffmann lui-même, par son écriture créative des derniers chapitres du roman de Jean Paul : Flegeljahre, qui mouvement lent date du début de la décennie mais la plus si foisonnante, si riche d’inventions philosophiques et d’univers inspire à Schumann des réminiscences de fragments d’airs de grande partie de l’œuvre fut achevée en 1835.