Mahler & Schumann

Two married couples, but quite different marriages. Yet posterity should be grateful that these four people found time to write music amidst everything else.

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About the concert

From the grand symphonic to intimate, brief songs. The full spectrum of the Mahlers' music perhaps also reflects their marriage.

The Schumanns are best known as prominent champions of piano music. Despite everything, they held just as firmly together in their private life.

One must be oneself. One must be together. This is the concert for those who want to discover two great names in composition, but four very different personalities.

Additional Content

Concert program

Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder

Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder, version for violin and piano, Op. 113 (1851)

  1. Nicht schnell
  2. Lebhaft
  3. Rasch
  4. Langsam

Robert presents us with four different fairy tale images, inviting us to create our own pictures. The titles suggest a musical character, but the creatures and settings are ours to imagine.

Performers:

  • Alena Baeva, violin
  • Sveinung Bjelland, piano
Alma Mahler and Gustav Mahler: Songs from a Marriage

Alma Mahler (1879–1964) / Gustav Mahler (1860–1911): Songs from a Marriage (1900–01)

  1. Gustav: Ich atmet einen linden Duft
  2. Alma: Bei dir ist es traut
  3. Gustav: Liebst du um Schönheit
  4. Alma: Laue Sommernacht
  5. Gustav: Blick mir nicht in die Lieder
  6. Alma: Die stille Stadt
  7. Gustav: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

The texts for Gustav Mahler's songs are by Friedrich Rückert, set to music by Mahler in 1901–1902. These songs are considered among his most intimate and restrained works.

Alma Mahler's songs offer a glimpse into a compositional talent that had to navigate the expectations of being a composer's wife. She destroyed many of her own works, and much was lost during World War II. Fortunately, several songs have survived and are now regarded as important contributions to the late Romantic Lied tradition.

Performers:

  • Roderick Williams, baritone
  • Sveinung Bjelland, piano
Clara Schumann: Piano Trio in G minor

Clara Schumann (1819–1896): Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846)

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Scherzo. Tempo di menuetto - Trio
  3. Andante
  4. Allegretto

Clara's only piano trio and regarded as her most accomplished chamber work. Premiered by Clara herself on January 15, 1847, at the height of her career as one of Europe's most celebrated pianists.

Performers:

  • Johan Dalene, violin
  • Victor Julien‑Laferrière, cello
  • Isata Kanneh‑Mason, piano

Composers

Komponist Alma Mahler

Alma Mahler

Alma Mahler

Alma Mahler (1879–1964) was a Vienna-born socialite, married to Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel. She composed nearly 50 songs for voice and piano, studying with Josef Labor and Alexander von Zemlinsky. 17 songs survive, published 1910–1924. She supported composers Berg, Schoenberg, and Bernstein, managed Mahler's legacy, and was a muse who sacrificed her art.

Komponist Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was an Austro-Bohemian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. From a Jewish family, he directed the Vienna Court Opera 1897–1907, then the New York Met and Philharmonic. He composed 10 symphonies and song cycles including Das Lied von der Erde. A bridge between 19th-century Romanticism and 20th-century modernism, he influenced Schoenberg, Shostakovich, and Britten. Banned during the Nazi era, his music was revived by Bernstein in the 1960s.

Komponist Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann (1819–1896) was a German pianist and composer. She married Robert Schumann in 1840 and had eight children, and a close friend of Johannes Brahms. A child prodigy who debuted at nine, she became one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era with a 61-year career. She was first to perform from memory, and composed a piano concerto, chamber music, and songs. She preserved Robert's legacy and is now recognized as a major composer in her own right.

Komponist Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) was a German composer and music critic. He married pianist Clara Wieck after a famous legal battle with her father. Suffering mental illness, he died in an asylum at 46. He composed piano masterpieces (Carnaval, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana), song cycles (Dichterliebe, Frauenliebe und Leben), four symphonies, and a piano concerto. Expressing the deepest spirit of Romanticism, he influenced Brahms, Liszt, Wagner, and generations of composers.

Artists