In these 8 lectures by Professor Greenberg, you'll meet the Schumanns: brilliant, gifted, troubled, and unique in the history of music. Robert Schumann and his wife Clara Wieck Schumann have earned a distinct place in the annals of Western music. As a couple with a two-career marriage (he as a pioneering critic and composer, she as one of the leading concert pianists of Europe), they were highly exceptional in their own time, though they seem very contemporary in ours. "Of all the early Romantic composers," Professor Greenberg notes, "it is Robert Schumann even more than Hector Berlioz whose music stands as the quintessence of the Romantic ideal: an art that combines music and literary storytelling in pursuit of the fullest possible degree of expression. It tended to strike contemporaries - including, in this case, even Schumann's wife, Clara - with its originality, its personal character, and its willingness to test aesthetic limits." Works you'll hear by Robert Schumann in the lectures include excerpts from: Papillons (Butterflies), op. 2; Carnaval, op. 9; Symphony no. 1 in B-flat Major (Spring), op. 38; Piano Quintet in E-flat, op. 44; Concert Piece for Four Horns and Orchestra, op. 86; Symphony no. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 97, Rhenish; "An Anna"; Frauenliebe und Leben (Woman's Love and Life), op. 42; and Theme in E-flat Major (1854). Works by Clara Schumann excerpted in these lectures are from: Walzer; Soirées Musicales, op. 6; and Am Strand (Musing on the Roaring Ocean).
Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann—Their Lives and Music
01: Isn't it Romantic!
This lecture provides background on Romanticism, the dominant movement in European art in the 19th century, and on Robert Schumann's youth. He showed an early talent for piano and composing. In his teen years he wrote songs that began to reveal the duality of poet and musician in his personality and work. Before he went on to university, Schumann experienced two tragedies: the death of his sister Emilie and the sudden death of his father from a heart attack at age 53.
02: A Pianist in Leipzig
Schumann enrolled at the University of Leipzig in 1828. He began piano lessons with Friedrich Wieck, father of Clara. In 1831, Schumann also made his debut as a professional music critic. When his hands started to go numb, Schumann knew that he would not have a career as a pianist; he turned to composition. In July 1833, illness and deaths caused him to go into a deep depression.
03: Clara
Schumann's teacher and Clara's father, Friedrich Wieck, was an ambitious and difficult man, determined to transform Clara into a great pianist using his teaching methods. Clara was well received wherever she and her father traveled. Robert Schumann lived with the Wiecks for almost a year. Clara played Schumann's "Papillons", and by the time she was 16, they had fallen in love.
04: "Carnaval"
Schumann composed "Carnaval", which is made up of 21 miniatures describing Schumann's friends and colleagues in the setting of a masked ball. When Wieck discovered Schumann's relationship with Clara, took Clara away from Leipzig and severed all ties with Schumann. Schumann was driven to episodes of mania and depression. During one of his manic periods, he composed "Kreisleriana," a kind of ";spiritual diary" of his emotions and personality at the time.
05: Marriage and Songs
After Robert and Clara won a lawsuit filed against her father, they were married. Robert was composing prodigiously, producing almost 150 songs in the year 1840, including the beautiful "Frauenliebe und Leben" (Woman's Love and Life). The early days of their marriage were happy, but the realities of balancing their demanding professional and personal lives soon brought conflict to the couple.
06: The Symphonic Year
Robert's Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, op. 38, was brilliant and wonderfully received by both audiences and critics. Inspired by the symphony's triumph, Robert wrote a number of other orchestral works and chamber music. Clara returned to touring just three months after the couple's first child was born. Robert and Clara managed to strike a balance in their professional and personal lives.
07: Illness Takes Hold
Robert Schumann's compositional career took off, but in 1844, his mental health began to decline. They moved to Dresden to be closer to Robert's doctors. They moved to Kreischa, where Schumann experienced a period of intense creativity. In 1850, Schumann took an appointment as music director for the city of Düsseldorf. They were initially welcomed with enthusiasm, but three years later, the orchestra would demand Schumann's resignation.
08: Madness
In Düsseldorf Robert was inspired to write the Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, along with trios, sonatas, orchestral works, and pieces for chorus and voice and piano. Robert and Clara also met Johannes Brahms there; he became a lifelong friend and source of strength for Clara. In 1854 Robert attempted to drown himself in the Rhine and was taken to an asylum. He died there two years later. Clara managed to sustain the family through her concerts but was dealt even more pain by the early deaths of several of her children.
About
Dr. Robert Greenberg is Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances. A graduate of Princeton University, Professor Greenberg holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He has seen his compositions-which include more than 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles-performed all over the world, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands.
He has served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley; California State University, Hayward; and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, and the Chicago Symphony. For The Great Courses, he has recorded more than 500 lectures on a range of composers and classical music genres.
Professor Greenberg is a Steinway Artist. His many other honors include three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and a Koussevitzky commission from the Library of Congress. He has been profiled in various major publications, including The Wall Street Journal; Inc. magazine; and the London Times.
You can find more music content from Robert Greenberg on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RobertGreenbergMusic.
