Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto; Piano Trio
List Price:
Our Price: $4.65
You Save: $4.34 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.39 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Composer: Clara Wieck SchumannConductor: Stefania Rinaldi
Orchestra: Alma Mahler Sinfonietta
Performer: Francesco Nicolosi
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-04-19
Music Label: Naxos
Soundtracks:
- Allegro Maestoso
- Romanze: Andante Non Troppo Con Grazia
- Finale: Allegro Non Troppo - Allegro Molto
- Allegro Moderato
- Scherzo: Tempo De Menuetto
- Andante
- Allegretto
Free Music Notes for Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto; Piano Trio
Free Music Review: Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto and Piano Trio
Hit: 4 Stars
Of all the women pianists of the age, Clara Schumann was the paragon. She had a successful career almost alone among women pianists in the mid-19th century. But she did not have a particularly successful career as a composer, although she was certainly talented enough. In those days, it wasn't considered seemly (or, in some quarters, even possible) for a woman to be a composer, and getting performances outside the family circle was nigh impossible. Clara was able to play her piano concerto a few times largely because of her clout as a pianist, but neither it nor the piano trio recorded here was widely known.
The two works recorded here are as different as day and night. The Piano Concerto, written when Clara was only fourteen, is an apprentice work. It feels awkward and cobbled together. Even the first entrance of the piano sounds diffident because the first notes it plays are the passage-work that comprises the second half of the work's initial theme. It's almost as if the pianist has to make its entrance through a side door. The musical language of the concerto is a combination of that of Mendelssohn and of a kind of proto-Chopin. The latter similarity, I suspect, actually draws more from the bel canto melodies of Bellini than from Chopin. In this performance pianist Francesco Nicolosi does as much as can be expected with the work, and he is ably, if just a bit tentatively, accompanied by the Alma Mahler Sinfonietta, conducted by Stefania Rinaldi. The Sinfonietta is an orchestra made up entirely of women musicians.
The Piano Trio, on the other hand, is quite on a par with other great chamber pieces of the time that include piano. It was written ten years after the Concerto and is both assured and original. In four movements, it is marked by memorable melodies and easy polyphony used to make a classically balanced work. The fluid contrapuntal weaving of lines is masterful. Indeed, the fugato in the middle of the fourth movement is possibly more assured than that in a similar spot in her husband's more familiar Piano Quintet. Nicolosi is joined by violinist Rodolfo Bonucci and cellist Andrea Noferini in a decent performance. I must comment, though, that the recording of this work by the Dartington Trio (and which also includes Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Trio) trumps this one with its grace and fire.
If you are interested to hear the Piano Concerto, this is the only easily available recorded version. If you are particularly drawn to hear the Piano Trio, I'd suggest you investigate the Dartington's recording, although I will warn you that the latter costs several dollars more than this one.
TT=54:00
Scott Morrison
Classical Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Classical Music CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Childrens Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.40
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $25.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.94
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.62
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Dvorák - Complete Piano TriosRelease date: 1996-09-17; Music CD
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops:
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: String QuartetsRelease date: 2000-01-25; Music CD
Best price: $11.87
Price in other shops:
Brahms: Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79; Piano Pieces, Opp. 117-119Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $8.11
Price in other shops:
Schumann: Complete Piano TriosRelease date: 1997-11-11; Music CD
Best price: $9.82
Price in other shops:
Salieri: Symphonies, OverturesRelease date: 2001-02-27; Music CD
Best price: $12.92
Price in other shops:
Emerson String Quartet, Johann Sebastian Bach - Bach: The Art of FugueBACH,J.S.; Release date: 2003-08-12; Music CD
Best price: $9.82
Price in other shops:
Clara Schumann: Piano MusicRelease date: 1999-06-22; Music CD
Best price: $5.63
Price in other shops:
The Women's Philharmonic: Fanny Mendelssohn: Overture (c. 1830) / C. Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7 / G. Tailleferre: Concertino for Harp and Orchestra (1927) / Boulanger: D'un Soir Triste (1918); D'un Matin de Printemps (1918)Release date: 2008-08-19; Music CD
Best price: $93.28
Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Womanby Nancy B. Reich
Cornell University Press; Published: 2001-06-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.61
Price in other shops:
Clara Schumann: Complete Piano WorksRelease date: 2001-08-21; Music CD
Best price: $19.64
Price in other shops: