Chelsea Groupmuse: Romantic April

Schumann/Liszt: Liebeslied (Love song)

Wagner/Liszt: Isoldes Liebestod (Isolde's Love-death)

Lowell Liebermann: Gargoyles (1989)

Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor

intermission

Schumann: Fantasy in C major, op. 17

This program is a celebration of love through the music of the great Romantics--Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, and Chopin. Plus a fantastic little set by one of my favorite living composers, Lowell Liebermann!

We'll start with two transcriptions by Franz Liszt, one of history's original celebrities. Equally adored for his handsome features as for his unmatched virtuosity at the piano, Liszt left pianists with a legion of sure-fire showpieces. These two transcriptions find him taking the music of two friends and colleagues, Schumann and Wagner, and reimagining them for the piano. Robert Schumann's "Widmung" (Dedication), is a song he gave to his wife, Clara, on the day of their wedding. This song is overflowing with tenderness and joy. Afterward, we'll enter the transcendental world of Richard Wagner. This selection is Liszt's transcription of the final scene from Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde," which depicts Isolde following her lover Tristan into rapturous death.

Before we all melt into a Romantic puddle, I'll cleanse the air with Liebermann's Gargoyles. These four short pieces that are by turns impish, mischievous, eerie, and terrifying. I'm positive you will enjoy them. Following the Gargoyles, we'll conclude our first half with the Ballade in G minor by Frédéric Chopin. This piece was the dreamy soundtrack to my high school years, but I never got around to playing it until a few weeks ago. Marjorie's Groupmuse will be my first public performance of the piece, in fact! True to its title, the Ballade conveys the feeling of a journey, marked by melancholy, reverie, and nobility, ultimately hurtling toward a gripping finale.

The second half returns to a younger Schumann in the throes of his passion for Clara, but kept apart from her by her father. In the letters Schumann wrote to her from afar, Schumann describes composing what he considered to be his greatest masterpiece, with every note inspired by her. The tempestuous first movement is full of yearning and loneliness, culminating in a quote from a Beethoven song cycle: "Take then these songs that I sang to you, my beloved." The march-like second movement has incredible drive and authority, and contains one of the most difficult passages in the piano literature. The third movement is Schumann's own Liebestod, but rather than the exaltation of Wagner, it is an eternal love of purity, dignity, and simplicity.

I look forward to seeing you at the concert!