Can't say I distinctly more often listened to Haydn & Händel in 2009, though the concert halls had been flooded with both (I attended just two Händel operas). Anyway - This has to change in 2010 with Schumann's anniversary. There's so much Schumann I'm not familiar with at all (music like his
Requiem or many of his Lieder for instance). I'm cautiously optimistic that most of his works can be found on the web.
Schumann's oeuvre is rather small-sized compared to the output of others, it should be possible to listen to all of them in 365 days and embed it with some bits and pieces of information. Nothing sprawling, maybe just some pictures, biographical informations etc.. Nothing particularly scholar.
Anyone on for it? If so - let's do it. We are either oriented towards his opus numbers or the
time of origin. What I'm thinking about could possibly look like this
op. 1
Thème sur le nom Abegg varié pour le pianoforte (1829/30)
Written after he started to study law in Leipzig (rather grudgingly, his focus was certainly on music and esp. literature).
The musical background of the Variationen is fascinating: dedicated to a fictional Mlle. Pauline Comtesse d’Abegg it's written with love for Agnes Carus, a married woman and amateur enthusiast, who introduced Schumann to the art of Schubert. The theme consists of
a b e g g, but doesn't appear in the variations often. More important is the reoccurring little tritone
a - es forming his crush
a - g (n) - es.
The remarkable thing in the Variationen is, that after the theme is introduced, it's almost neglected later on, it just shines through in fragments later on.
It's a most lovely piece, here's a recording with the great Clara Haskil, I really like that recording, the beginning of the cantabile in the middle even sounds Blues-like in it:
So - anybody in it?
The Schumann challenge
