The Leading Classical Music Label Direct To You

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the COMPACT DISC Schumann, R.: Overtures

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Free MP3 Downloads

A Special Offer for Valentines

Catalogs

Internship Opportunities

Celebrating Black History

Masters of American Music

53rd Annual Grammy� Award Winners

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

Schumann, R.: Overtures

Home

Classical Music

Orchestral

View large image

$9.99 (COMPACT DISC)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this COMPACT DISC Link to this page

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) Overtures Robert Schumann must seem in many ways typical of the age in which he lived, combining a number of the principal...

Read more about this recording

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)

Overtures

Robert Schumann must seem in many ways typical of the age in which he lived, combining a number of the principal characteristics of Romanticism in his music and in his life. Born in Zwickau in 1810, the son of a book seller, publisher and writer, he showed an early interest in literature and later made a name for himself as a writer and editor of the Neue Zeitschrift f�r Musik, a journal launched in 1834. After a period at university to satisfy the ambitions of his widowed mother, but still showing the wide interests of a dilettante, Schumann was able to turn more fully to music under the tuition of Friedrich Wieck, a famous teacher, whose energies had been largely directed towards the training of his beloved daughter Clara, a pianist of prodigious early talent.

Schumann's own ambitions as a pianist were to be frustrated by a weakness of the fingers, the result, it is supposed, of mercury treatment for syphilis, which he perhaps had contracted from a servant-girl in Wieck's employment. Nevertheless he wrote a great deal of music for the piano during the 1830s, much of it in the form of shorter genre pieces, often enough with some extra-musical, literary or autobiographical association. The end of the decade brought a prolonged quarrel with Wieck, who did his utmost, through the courts, to prevent his daughter from marrying Schumann, bringing in support evidence of the latter's allegedly dissolute way of life. He might have considered, too, a certain mental instability, perhaps in part inherited, which brought periods of intense depression.

In 1840 Schumann and Clara married, with the permission of the court. The year brought the composition of a large number of songs and was followed by a period during which Clara encouraged her husband to tackle larger forms of orchestral music, while both of them had to make adjustments in their own lives to accommodate their differing professional requirements and the birth of children. A relatively short period in Leipzig was followed, in 1844, by residence in Dresden, where Wagner was now installed at the Court Theatre, his conversation causing Schumann to retire early to bed with a headache in 1850 the couple moved to D�sseldorf, where Schumann had been appointed director of music, a position the demands of which he was unable to meet, a fact that contributed to his suicidal depression and final break-down in 1854, leading to his death in the asylum at Endenich two years later Schumann completed his first symphony early in 1841 and it was performed on 31st March that year by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Mendelssohn In April he set to work on an Overture, intended as part of an orchestral suite, to which he added a Scherzo and a Finale, to be performed in Leipzig on 6th December. The Finale

was later revised by the composer. The Overture

opens with a brief introduction, marked Andante con moto, based on a brief motif of dramatic implication. An Allegro follows, with an initial theme that might well have sounded familiar to Mendelssohn, although Schumann never had quite the lightness of touch of that composer. The Scherzo and its Trio are scored more heavily than might have been expected, the woodwind assuming some prominence in the latter section, before the insistent rhythm of the Scherzo reasserts itself. The Trio makes a brief re-appearance before the final bars, in which the opening rhythm is recalled. The Finale has an imposing fugal opening, in a movement that seems to justify the composer's own reference to the work as a symphonette. There is an imposing cheerfulness about the music and a coherence of structure that enables it, as Schumann intended, to stand on its own, if this were to be required.

The opera Genoveva and the incidental music for Manfred belong to the Dresden period of Schumann's life in 1843 Friedrich Hebbel had published his five-act blank verse tragedy Genoveva, based on the Volksbuch von der Pfalzgrafin Genoveva

and later French and German sources. The young knight Golo is left by the crusader Pfalzgraf Siegfried to guard his wife Genoveva. In his lord's absence Golo seeks the love of Genoveva, who rejects him and is then imprisoned on a false charge of adultery with the loyal knight Drago, whom he has put to death Genoveva, in prison, gives birth to Siegfried's son, and is finally saved when the murderer, hired to kill her as she is led into the forest at Golo's command, is himself killed by a madman, der tolle Klaus Siegfried, returning, believes that Genoveva has been false to him and rejects her child as another’s. Golo finally repents and has himself blinded by his companion to be left to die in the forest where Genoveva and her child now live. The opera itself ends happily with the reconciliation of Siegfried and Genoveva.

Schumann made a very poor impression on Hebbel, when they met briefly at the composer's suggestion, and was eventually left to devise his own opera libretto based on the work of Hebbel and a play on the same subject by Ludwig Tieck, after rejecting a version prepared for him by the poet and painter Robert Reinick, who had settled in Dresden in 1844. The opera was first staged in Leipzig in June 1851 before a distinguished audience that included Liszt and the violinist Joachim but its reception was lukewarm. The Overture, however has had more success, written in the space of five days at the beginning of ApriI 1847, an effective orchestral composition.

Immediately after the completion of Genoveva Schumann set to work on Manfred, based on the dramatic poem by Lord Byron, whose work Schumann’s father had published in translation. A hero with whom Schumann himself might have identified as Hebbel had identified in some measure with his villain Golo, Manfred seeks oblivion for some mysterious crime wandering as an outcast in the Alps, attempting death and summoning spirits to his aid, finally to deny the power of evil demons over him before death takes him. The Byronic hero and the Caspar Friedrich landscape exercised fascination over a number of nineteenth century composers, of whom the most distinguished was to be Tchaikovsky. Schumann devised a libretto based on the German translation of Manfred

by the Silesian pastor Karl von Suckow, a series of fifteen scenes, preceded by an Overture, the last again more effective and hence more often heard than the work that it introduces. The first complete performance of Manfred was in Weimar in 1852 under the direction of Liszt who included, as an intermezzo, Wagner’s Faust Overture, this in the absence of the composer, who felt unable to undertake the Journey from D�sseldorf. The Overture, however had been given earlier concert performances in Leipzig by the Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Schumann and in Weimar.

In 1844 Schumann began to consider the possibility of setting Goethe’s Faust to music. Rejecting the possibility of doing justice to the work in operatic form, he chose instead to concentrate on a series of scenes, starting with the final apotheosis, which was eventually given a public performance in 1849, as part of the celebrations marking the centenary of Goethe's birth. At this period Schumann added six further scenes and finally in 1853, an Overture, written during a period of five days in August. The whole work was first performed in Cologne eight years later at the insistence of the baritone Julius Stockhausen.

The young writer Richard Pohl had approached Schumann in 1850 with the proposal of an opera based on Schiller’s play Die Braut von Messina.

Pohl, a philosophy student from Dresden, later provided Schumann with a libretto for his projected oratorio Martin Luther, a work that came to nothing. Die Braut von Messina, The Bride of Messina, inspired only a concert overture, completed in 1851 and first performed in D�sseldorf on 13th March that year in a programme that also included Schumann’s work for chorus and orchestra Nachtlied, a setting of a poem by Hebbel, and the Rhenish Symphony. Schiller’s tragedy, an attempted recreation of Greek drama, deals with the fatal rivalry of two brothers, sons of the ruling prince of Messina, and their love for a girl who turns out to be their sister. The drama ends with the death of the two brothers, one killed by the other, who then takes his own life. Schumann’s sonata-form Overture is dominated by a motif representing the curse on the family and seemed to him quite straightforward, although he found the D�sseldorf audience unenthusiastic in its response.

The same year 1851, brought the composition of two further concert overtures, the first to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and the second inspired by Goethe’s epic poem Hermann und Dorothea,

its nine books each bearing the name of one of the nine Muses. Hermann, the son of a Rhineland inn-keeper, falls in love with Dorothea, a penniless girl making her escape from the disturbances consequent on the French Revolution. In spite of parental opposition and misunderstandings the couple are eventually betrothed. The Oveture makes use of phrases from the Marseillaise, in an attempt to suggest the period and events described in Goethe's poem, and was intended, it seems to introduce a Singspiel on the subject, a project that the composer had had long in mind. The Roman general Julius Caesar and the drama of his assassination are less aptly evoked.

The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Katowice (PNRSO)

The Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra of Katowice (PRNSO) was founded in 1945, soon after the end of the World War II, by the eminent Polish conductor Witold Rowicki. The PRNSO replaced the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra which had existed from 1934 to 1939 in Warsaw, under the direction of another outstanding artist, Grzegorz Fitelberg. In 1947 Grzegroz Fitelberg returned to Poland and became artistic director of the PRNSO. He was followed by a series of distinguished Polish conductors - Jan Krenz. Bohdan Wodiezko, Kazimierz Kord, Tadeusz Strugala, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Stanislaw Wislocki and, since 1983, Antoni Wit. The orchestra has appeared with conductors and soloists of the greatest distinction and has recorded for Polskie Nagrania and many international record labels.

Johannes Wildner

Johannes Wildner was born in the Austrian resort of M�rzzuschlag in 1956 and studied violin and conducting, taking his diploma at the Vienna Musikhochschule and proceeding to a doctorate in musicology. A member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Johannes Wildner has toured widely as leader of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra Johann Strauss Ensemble and of the Vienna Mozart Academy. As a conductor he has directed the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia Romagna Arturo Toscanini, the Budapest State Opera Orchestra, the Silesian Philharmonic and the Malmo Symphony Orchestra. He conducted performances of the Vienna Volksoper in the autumn of 1989 and has been invited to Japan, China, Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Italy.

Disc 1

Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52

(more info)

Performed by: London Symphony Orchestra Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Neville Marriner Robert Schumann
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner Neeme Jarvi
Recording date: 24-26 January and 25-26 April, 1992

Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52 - 17:21

Genoveva, Op. 81: Overture

(more info)

Performed by: London Symphony Orchestra Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Robert Schumann
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner Neeme Jarvi
Recording date: 1986

Genoveva, Op. 81 - 8:13

Die Braut von Messina (The Bride of Messina), Op. 100

(more info)

Performed by: Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Robert Schumann
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner
Recording date: 24-26 January and 25-26 April, 1992

Bride of Messina, Op. 100 - 8:09

Julius Caesar Overture, Op. 128

(more info)

Performed by: London Symphony Orchestra Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Robert Schumann
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner Neeme Jarvi
Recording date: 24-26 January and 25-26 April, 1992

Julius Caesar, Op. 128 - 9:37

Hermann and Dorothea, Op. 136

(more info)

Performed by: Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Robert Schumann
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner
Recording date: 24-26 January and 25-26 April, 1992

Hermann and Dorothea, Op. 136 - 8:24

Scenen aus Goethes Faust, WoO3 (arr. for orchestra)

(more info)

Performed by: Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Robert Schumann
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner
Recording date: 24-26 January and 25-26 April, 1992

Faust - 8:57

Manfred, Op. 115: Overture

(more info)

Performed by: London Symphony Orchestra Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Neville Marriner Rene Leibowitz Robert Schumann
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner Neeme Jarvi
Recording date: 24-26 January and 25-26 April, 1992

Manfred, Op. 115 - 10:49

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Schumann, Robert

Conductor(s):
Wildner, Johannes

Orchestra(s):
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099560825
Item Number: 8550608
Release Date: Apr 2, 1993