Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Peter Lieberson
Remembering Schumann (2009)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
Programme Note
Premiere:
January 26 2010
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax, piano
San Francsico, CA
Note:
Peter Lieberson composed Remembering Schumann in the winter of 2009 in Palm Springs, California. This work, which runs about twenty minutes, was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Carnegie Hall, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Barbican, London. It is dedicated to Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma.
“I have always had a special feeling for Schumann,” Lieberson says. “Even as a young man I loved the sensibility of his piano music, but I was also somewhat scared by how unhinged his music could be. When I was trying to compose this work a Schumann piece kept going through my head. I had trouble placing it but eventually realized it was the third variation of his Symphonic Etudes — some funny march music that is evoked in my first movement, 'Variations on Simple Chords.' The second movement is 'Variations on a Simple Melody,' which might suggest more connection to a song style. The third movement is 'Variations on A-S-C-H,' but for some reason the motif insisted on coming out as S-C-H-A in my piece — or, more precisely, with an A-flat interpolated to make it S-As (German for A-flat)-C-H-A. Although all three movements involve variations, the variations aren’t so clearly demarcated as they would be in a classical variations form. But of course my goal was to write an original piece rather than to specifically evoke the sound of Schumann.”
We might clarify that the A-S-C-H motif is one that Schumann used most famously in his piano suite Carnaval. The letters are the German names of the notes that in English are called A, E-flat, C, and B-natural, and they served as a musical encryption of the town Asch, where an early girlfriend of his had lived. In Carnaval, Schumann played with the order of the four notes, using not only the basic sequence of A-S-C-H but also the variants As-C-H and S-C-H-A. Lieberson’s sequences of S-C-H-A and S-As-C-H-A are clearly born of those two Schumannesque variants.
— James M. Keller
©2009
This program note may not be reproduced without the permission of the author.
Email for permission request: jamesmkeller@comcast.net
January 26 2010
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax, piano
San Francsico, CA
Note:
Peter Lieberson composed Remembering Schumann in the winter of 2009 in Palm Springs, California. This work, which runs about twenty minutes, was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Carnegie Hall, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Barbican, London. It is dedicated to Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma.
“I have always had a special feeling for Schumann,” Lieberson says. “Even as a young man I loved the sensibility of his piano music, but I was also somewhat scared by how unhinged his music could be. When I was trying to compose this work a Schumann piece kept going through my head. I had trouble placing it but eventually realized it was the third variation of his Symphonic Etudes — some funny march music that is evoked in my first movement, 'Variations on Simple Chords.' The second movement is 'Variations on a Simple Melody,' which might suggest more connection to a song style. The third movement is 'Variations on A-S-C-H,' but for some reason the motif insisted on coming out as S-C-H-A in my piece — or, more precisely, with an A-flat interpolated to make it S-As (German for A-flat)-C-H-A. Although all three movements involve variations, the variations aren’t so clearly demarcated as they would be in a classical variations form. But of course my goal was to write an original piece rather than to specifically evoke the sound of Schumann.”
We might clarify that the A-S-C-H motif is one that Schumann used most famously in his piano suite Carnaval. The letters are the German names of the notes that in English are called A, E-flat, C, and B-natural, and they served as a musical encryption of the town Asch, where an early girlfriend of his had lived. In Carnaval, Schumann played with the order of the four notes, using not only the basic sequence of A-S-C-H but also the variants As-C-H and S-C-H-A. Lieberson’s sequences of S-C-H-A and S-As-C-H-A are clearly born of those two Schumannesque variants.
— James M. Keller
©2009
This program note may not be reproduced without the permission of the author.
Email for permission request: jamesmkeller@comcast.net