Press Releases and Reviews of Clara Schumann Performances
Press Release for March 24, 1996 Performance
Clara'96
Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Clara Schumann Society c/o David Kenneth Smith ~ 3209 E. 10th St. 9W
Bloomington, IN 47408
The Clara Schumann Society presents an historic centenary concert featuring
the COMPLETE LIEDER of CLARA SCHUMANN on March 24, 1996, at 8:00 pm in
Auer Hall on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University. Under the coaching
of Lieder specialist Leonard Hokanson, soprano Amy Hansen Simmons, baritone
Andrew Hendricks, soprano Evelyn Johnson, tenor David Hansen Simmons, tenor
David Kenneth Smith, soprano Susan Swaney, and soprano Lisa Williamson
will perform with pianists James Bagwell, Nicole Becker, Anne Bolt, Ray
Fellman and Marie Libal-Smith. Several songs recently published for the
first time will be included among the twenty-eight lieder to be performed.
Woven into an exciting narrative of joy, passion, estrangement, despair
and hope, the program will propose a possible Dichterliebe by Clara Schumann.
The Concert will also mark the release of a new lyric translation by David
Kenneth Smith of the complete poetry set by Clara Schumann. It promises
to be an evening full of the charm of German lyric poetry, the beautiful
melodies of Romantic Lieder, and the virtuosity that pervades the compositions
of Clara Schumann. As a child prodigy, Clara Wieck found early fame as
a concert pianist. She later fell in love with Robert Schumann, a budding
composer and student of her father. Their interwoven diaries give witness
to the close interaction of two artists, a mutually inspired marriage of
love and art. Clara's life, however, was tragic. She was burdened by Robert's
mental decline, the births and deaths of several children, and years of
widowhood. Yet she was comforted by the companionship of Johannes Brahms
and the adulation of her audiences. Clara Schumann stands among the best
nineteenth- century concert pianists and is remembered as an extraordinary
woman and artist. The Clara Schumann Society is a non-profit organization
which sponsors the Clara Schumann Home Page, and through the Clara'96 Campaign,
promotes the research and performance of the music of Clara Schumann, especially
during her centenary year 1996. Membership is granted to persons who perform
or research the music of Clara Schumann, or who participate in the building
of the Home Page or the organization of Clara events. The benefits of membership
include the listing of members' names and links to their home pages, and
postings of their concert programs or research citations. The Clara Schumann
Home Page exists to stimulate the performance and research of Clara Schumann's
music, and to serve as a focal point of these activities. The linked pages
provide many resources that will help interested persons to get started
with their performance plans and research. These resources include a short
biography, quick facts, program notes, translations, introductions to works,
essays, startup bibliographies, discographies, a chronology and calendar
of important events in Clara's life, pictures, upcoming Clara events this
year, and responses to the Clara'96 Campaign. The Clara Schumann Home Page
also is a resource for musicians who seek on-line information about other
music subjects. It includes links to other composer home pages and information
on neglected composers. For those interested in gender and music, there
are lists of women composers, both alphabetical and chronological, a bibliography
of women musicians and composers, and links to other related resources
and organizations. What can you do? The Clara '96 Campaign is a challenge
to music schools, conservatories, and concert halls around the world to
commit themselves to perform Clara Schumann's entire works during 1996,
and to students, performers, and professors to do their part by performing
a single opus in a recital, by presenting a whole concert of her works,
or by dedicating their institution to performing each and every piece of
music Clara Schumann wrote. Others can help by encouraging students to
study her life and music, by playing her music on the radio and television,
by purchasing recordings and scores, and by attending concerts of her music.
Clara Schumann Society c/o David Kenneth Smith Department of Music
University of Alabama Huntsville, AL 35899
WWW URL: http://www.uah.edu/clara/schumann.html
EMAIL:
Available for interviews and further inquiry.
Clara'96
Press Release for June 19, 1996 Performance
Clara'96
Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Clara Schumann Society c/o David Kenneth Smith ~ 3209 E. 10th St. 9W
Bloomington, IN 47408
You are cordially invited to experience an historic event . . . The founding
chapter of the Clara Schumann Society presents its second concert featuring
the MUSIC of CLARA SCHUMANN on Wednesday evening, June 19, 1996, at 8:30
pm in Recital Hall on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, sponsored
in part by the College Music Society's Institute on Women, Music &
Gender. In a unique centenary program commemorating Clara Schumann's death
in 1896, soprano Evelyn Johnson, tenor David Kenneth Smith, soprano Susan
Swaney, and soprano Lisa Williamson will perform with pianists Ray Fellman
and Marie Libal-Smith. They will be joined by pianist Sally Renee Todd,
violinist Christopher Swanson, and cellist Tomasz Wojciechowski who will
play Clara Schumann's Piano Trio. The concert is free of charge, translations
will be provided for the German songs, and it's about 90 minutes long,
with an intermission. No need to RSVP. Responding to popular demand, the
Society will present encore performances of many of the songs heard in
their March 24th premier concert featuring the Complete Lieder of Clara
Schumann. Sally Renee Todd, piano student of Schumann-expert Leonard Hokanson,
will play three solo Romances, composed in 1853. A newly formed ensemble
will close the concert with the Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello, music
that critics thought too skilled for a woman composer. Concert pianist
and composer Clara Schumann started her career as a child prodigy. The
works on this program were all composed during her marriage to composer
Robert Schumann, and the arrangement of diverse genres in one concert as
a "musical variety show" are typical of the early programs during this
period. Her life was a contrast of glory and tragedy, as she endured the
births and deaths of several children, the mental decline of her husband,
and years ofwidowhood. In the midst of a revival of her music and popular
fascination with her life, Clara Schumann is remembered today as an extraordinary
woman and gifted artist. The Clara Schumann Society is a non-profit organization
which sponsors the Clara Schumann Home Page, and through the Clara'96 Campaign,
promotes the research and performance of the music of Clara Schumann, especially
during her centenary year 1996. Membership is granted to persons who perform
or research the music of Clara Schumann, or who participate in building
the Home Page or the organization of Clara events. The benefits of membership
include the listing of members' names and links to their home pages, and
postings of their concert programs or research citations. The Clara Schumann
Home Page exists to stimulate the performance and research of Clara Schumann's
music, and to serve as a focal point of these activities. The linked pages
provide many resources that will help interested persons to get started
with their performance plans and research. These resources include a short
biography, quick facts, program notes, translations, introductions to works,
essays, startup bibliographies, discographies, a chronology and calendar
of important events in Clara's life, pictures, upcoming Clara events this
year, and responses to the Clara'96 Campaign. The Clara Schumann Home Page
also is a resource for musicians who seek on-line information about other
music subjects. It includes links to other composer home pages and information
on neglected composers. For those interested in gender and music, there
are lists of women composers, both alphabetical and chronological, a bibliography
of women musicians and composers, and links to other related resources
and organizations. What can you do? The Clara '96 Campaign is a challenge
to music schools, conservatories, and concert halls around the world to
commit themselves to perform Clara Schumann's entire works during 1996,
and to students, performers, and professors to dotheir part by performing
a single opus in a recital, by presenting a whole concert of her works,
or by dedicating their institution to performing each and every piece of
music Clara Schumann wrote. Others can help by encouraging students to
study her life and music, by playing her music on the radio and television,
by purchasing recordings and scores, and by attending concerts of her music.
WWW URL: http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~daksmith/index.html EMAIL:
daksmith@indiana.edu ~ PHONE: 812-855-1667 day. Available for interviews
and further inquiry. Clara'96
March 24, 1996 Bloomington Indiana Herald Times, D1
Program tonight honors Schumann
by Peter Jacobi, H-T Columnist, excerpt: And why shouldn't there be a Clara
Schumann Society in Bloomington? And why shouldn't that society sponsor
a program? Now in particular. We're reminded that 1996 is Clara Schumann's
centenary year. She died 100 years ago in May, having outlived her more
famous husband, Robert, by 40 years. To honor her, the local society this
evening at 8 presents the "Complete Lieder of Clara Schumann," 28 pieces
including a few recently published for the first time. Pianist Leonard
Hokanson, a frequent collaborator with renowned vocalists in the lieder
repertory, has coached a group of Indiana University music faculty memebers
and students to do honor to Madame Schumann's works. Says the publicity
release: "It promises to be an evening full of the charm of German lyric
poetry, the beautiful melodies of Romantic lieder, and the virtuosity that
pervades the compositions of Clara Schumann." Place: Auer Hall. Sounds
interesting.
March 28, 1996 Bloomington Indiana Herald Times, D6
Music Review: Clara Schumann Society Concert
Plenty to engage the ear, heart in Schumann Program
by Peter Jacobi, H-T Reviewer, excerpt: The instigator for the event appears
to have been David Kenneth Smith. It is he whom one contacts if seeking
to get in touch with the Clara Schumann Society. It is he who recently
finished new translations of the poetry set to music by the lady. It is
through him that a home page has been developed on the World Wide Web devoted
to her. And it is he who led the way toward the realization of Sunday evening's
Auer Hall concert featuring all 28 lieder composed by Clara Schumann. He
sang, as did six others from the Indiana University voice department: sopranos
Susan Swaney, Evelyn Johnson, Lisa Williamson, and Amy Hansen Simmons,
tenor David Hansen Simmons, and baritone Andrew hendricks. Five Pianists
-- Ray Fellman, James Bagwell, Marie Libal-Smith, Nicole Becker, and Anne
Bolt -- joined them for an hour and a half of song. Not every voice was
on an equal artistic footing. Nor was every Schumann song the equal of
the others. But there was plenty to engage the ear and heart as these young
and committed artists tackled their assignments and the always lovely songs
of Clara Wieck Schumann, Mrs. Robert Schumann, unfolded, in one emotional
burst after another. She employed the verbal fervor of the best poets of
her day, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Rückert, and Goethe among them.
And she seemed to spare no emotion in her settings. For Rückert's
"He came in storm and rain," she echoed the most urgent of husband Robert's
lieder. "he came in storm and rain, he boldly stole my heart," came the
words, one could experience the nervous energy of emotional union. An unknown
poet provided words for "The evening star." There's lift in the music as
the baritone admits, "Secretly each hour I am yearning to travel to you."
The Schumann-Heine "Lorelei" is a dramatic exercise in agitation. Daydreams
are soft. Hermann Rollett's "On morning bright and shining" brings rolling
arpeggios. Friederike Serre's "On Parting" is intense. Rückert's "I
once into your eyes look" is all ardor. A concert-concluding "O joy, o
joy," with words by Rollett again, is all celebration. "O joy, o joy, from
mountain top through all the land I'm singing" amounts to an exultation
matched voltage for voltage in song. Schumann expressed in extreme whatever
feeling came her way musically, and yet, the extreme did not lead to excess.
The melodic invention is rich. She also appeared able to create a climate
in each song, an environment that nurture the message communicated. For
this listener, who has heard some of the Clara Schumann lieder from time
to time, Sunday's exposure to the whole set was a revelation. She deserves
more attention than she normally gets from the world of music. And this
being the centennial year of her death, perhaps she'll begin to get more
than sideward glances ,as not only the mate who inspired the renowned Robert
but as a creative force whose music is worth hearing. And not as a curiosity,
one should add, but as that of a serious talent. To tenor Smith and his
colleagues, thanks are due. Theirs was a delightful concert.
Contents last updated: July 23, 1996
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