Clara

SCHIRMER STAATSKAPELLE HALLE MATIAKH

For more than 30 years now Ragna Schirmer has been researching the composer, pianist and persona of Clara Schumann. Even as a schoolgirl learning the piano, she admired the nineteenth-century artist’s apparent dexterity; later on, she read biographies, diaries and the entire correspondence – in short, everything pertaining to Clara Schumann. Ragna Schirmer not only greatly admires the composer’s works; she is fascinated by Clara’s character and her diverse roles as a pianist, mother and emancipated artist. A few years ago she discovered an old salon grand piano built by Bluthner and dating back to 1856, which she had restored at great expense. This allowed her to approach Clara Schumann’s art of playing more authentically than before; indeed, she still gives recitals on the instrument. During her years of study she wrote essays about Clara and to this day she maintains frequent contact with musicologists and historians. If there is a recognised expert on Clara Schumann who is simultaneously one of Germany’s most successful pianists of today, then it is Ragna Schirmer. This recording marks the fulfilment of a long-held wish by Ragna Schirmer: to suitably mark the 200th birthday of Clara Schumann, on September 13, 2019. That wish has grown into a large-scale long-term project, following on from her album “Liebe in Variationen” released in 2015, which looked at the musical messages of affection and love between Robert and Clara Schumann and their friend Johannes Brahms. The present recording combines Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor op. 7 with the Fourth Piano Concerto in G major by Ludwig van Beethoven, which Clara Schumann played in more than 50 concerts and for which she wrote her own cadenzas. To make this live recording, Ragna Schirmer invited the conductor Ariane Matiakh to the place she has chosen to live, Halle an der Saale.

Price: $27.98

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