Schumann l Dohnányi Earl Wild, Pianist Isaiah Jackson, Conductor l American String Orchestra l l l l l l l l Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Piano Quintet in E flat Major, Opus 44 1 I. Allegro brillante 2 II. In modo d’una marcia: Un poco largamente 3 III. Scherzo: Molto vivace 4 IV. Allegro ma non troppo It seems curious that among the wide variety of chamber music combinations created by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, there is not a single work originally written for piano and the standard string quartet. There are a number of compositions for two or three strings and piano by these masters, but apparently nobody ever thought of commissioning a piano quintet. Although there are some minor early works for string quartet with a piano continuo part, it remained for Robert Schumann to pioneer the form of the quintet for piano, two violins, viola, and cello. His single model for that combination inspired the notable examples of piano quintets by nineteenth century composers, such as Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak, César Franck and Gabriel Fauré. According to musicologist Alfred R. Neuman, “The early piano quintet form (as repre- sented by Louis Spohr and other early Romantic composers) suffered from the fact that it was primarily a piano virtuoso piece with string accompaniment. The balance between the instruments, especially in the opening Schumann Quintet in E flat Major, was by no means meant to be equal. The piano part does not represent one-fifth of the tonal factors, but rather balances the four strings as one unit. Though the nature of the string parts is inde- pendent, they are really no more independent than the orchestral part of a concerto. Where Schubert, in his Trout Quintet, seemed to divide a second piano part into four string parts (including a double bass instead of the second violin), Schumann condensed an orchestral accompaniment of a piano concerto into the string parts of this quintet.” This is why the Schumann work sounds so rich and wonderful with an expanded string section. – 2 – Prior to 1840, piano pieces formed the bulk of Robert Schumann’s compositional out- put. But early in 1840 he started composing lieder, and before the year was out he had written nearly half of his 250 songs, among them such important cycles as Dichterliebe, Myrthen, Frauenliebe und leben and both the Heine and Eichendorf Liederkreis. The songs, however did nothing to dispel Schumann’s reputation as a miniaturist. His wife, Clara, concerned that her well-established career as a pianist was beginning to over- shadow her husband’s efforts as a composer, encouraged him to broaden his scope by tackling larger forms. In 1841, he pro- duced two symphonies (Nos. 1 and 4) and the “Fantasia,” which he later expanded into the Piano Concerto in A Minor, Opus 54. Next he set to study- ing the quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The Quintet in E flat Major, Opus 44, was written in Schu- mann’s most fertile chamber Manuscript of the opening of Schumann’s Quintet, Opus 44 – 3 – music year: 1842. Six of his ten compositions in that field were written in that year: the three string quartets, Opus 41, the Piano Quartet, Opus 47, Fantasiestücke for piano trio, Opus 88, and the Piano Quintet on this recording. It was a period of greatest happiness for Schumann. Just two years earli- er he had finally been able to marry his beloved of many years, the pianist, Clara Wieck. As Clara Schumann she performed the piano part of this quintet at its pre- mière on January 8, 1843. The opening movement, Allegro brillante, begins with a heroic theme, harmonized in plain chords, which recurs again in later movements. After travelling through several keys, the opening theme gives way to a second melody, a statement and answer by celli and violas of unforgettable Robert Schumann tenderness, providing the main material of the whole movement. The mood changes completely with the second movement, a funeral march, character- ized by a melancholy, rhythmic pattern in the low register strings, with the violas taking an important role. With a sudden key change, the violins take over with a contemplative song in C major, accompanied by exceedingly pianistic passage work. The heartbeat-type rhythm then returns to close the movement. The scherzo is based on rapidly ascending and descending scale passages, testing the – 4 – performers’ technical skill, without, however, sacrificing melodiousness. The finale, Allegro ma non troppo, presents a great wealth of tonal beauty and ideas. Schumann provides enough musical material for two average movements, arranging the ideas into a kind of double sonata form. The careful listener will be able to discern even without a score the sequence of exposition (two themes), development, and recapitula- tion, here followed by a new exposition (a third theme), a second development (including elements of the first theme), and a second recapitulation, capped by a brief coda, re-presenting the first theme. The originality of the Quintet in E flat Major thus extends into the areas of instrumentation, form, and melody. Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960): Piano Quintet in C Minor, Opus 1 5 I. Allegro 6 II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace 7 III. Adagio: quasi andante 8 IV. Finale: Allegro animato Dohnányi was born in 1877 in a town located thirty five miles east of Vienna, the cap- ital of Austria. The town of Dohnányi’s birth was Hungary’s capital for hundreds of years. In Hungarian its name was Pozsony. In German, when Hungary was part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire (1867-1918), its name was Pressburg. Now this town’s name is Bratislava, and today it is the capital of the Slovakia. Ernö Dohnányi’s own name has a German version, Ernst von Dohnanyi. Political turmoils in Europe, of course, affected citizens of many countries of that con- tinent, not just the Hungarians. The two world wars and the frequent rearrangements of national borders were, however, far more severe in European lands east of France. Many eastern European classical instrumentalists and composers born at the end of the 19th cen- tury found themselves displaced and forced to seek safe havens all over the world. The fate of Dohnányi is especially ironic, because he was for a long time Hungary’s preeminent musical force. He was an internationally acclaimed pianist, world renowned composer, and conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra for a quarter of a cen- tury with whom he performed more than one hundred programs each season. Dohnányi – 5 – championed younger composers, such as Bartók and Kodály. He was also the musical director of the Hungarian Radio, concertized all over the world promoting Hungarian music, and presided over the Budapest Academy, where he taught piano and composition for many years. In short, from 1915 to 1944 Dohnányi had a powerful influence on the musical development of his native country. Yet by 1948 he was hounded out of Hungary and, after brief stopovers in Austria and in England, he found a temporary respite in Argentina, where he chaired the piano department at the University of Tucumán, some 800 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. From 1949 until his death in 1960, Dohnányi lived in the United States, thanks in great part to the foresight and largess of Florida State University in Tallahassee, which provided him with a faculty position in its music department. His appointment by a U.S. institution of higher learning does not appear to be an unusual event until one realizes that in 1949 Dohnányi was already 72 years old, seven years older than the then standard mandatory retirement age for employees, including professors. The musical journey that ended with a heart attack and a fatal bout with influenza in early February 1960 in New York City began when, at age 8, Dohnányi started his piano and harmony lessons with Karóly Forstner, the Pressburg Cathedral’s organist. In 1893 Dohnányi entered the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest, where he was taught piano by Stephan Thomen and composition by Hans Koessler. He also received a few master lessons from Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932), a Franz Liszt pupil. Dohnányi’s musical career started very auspiciously. His Opus 1, the Piano Quintet No.1 in C Minor, was warmly praised by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). In 1896, Dohnányi was awarded the King’s Prize in composition by the Hungarian government. In 1899, his Piano Concerto, Opus 5, won the von Bülow (Bösendorfer) Prize in Vienna, beating more than sixty competing compositions by others. Dohnányi’s 1898 pianistic debut in London, where he performed his favorite Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4 in G major, Opus 58, was also a tremendous success. In 1954, Ohio State University awarded Dohnányi an honorary doctorate. In his wan- ing years, he composed and performed much less. His last live recital was in Tallahassee in 1959. He continued to record, however; at the time of his death, Dohnányi was in New York City making studio recordings of Beethoven’s music for Everest Records. In the summer of 1895 the composer, only eighteen years old and still a student at the – 6 – Royal Academy, visited Johannes Brahms at his summer retreat at Ischl, a popular gathering place for musi- cians and writers in the Austrian Tyrol. Brahms was highly enthusiastic over Dohnányi’s newly created Piano Quintet in C Minor, and arranged an immediate performance of the work, with Dohnányi playing the piano part. It achieved an immediate success. Without a doubt it is one of the most noteworthy examples of an Opus 1 in the entire history of music.