Today, we're continuing our PT party for Robert Schumann's 200th birthday. There's much about his life that's worthy of a Gothic novel: passion, romance, madness, death. If you add in a seance and a brush with Hitler's Nazi Germany, it could be a summer blockbuster. The funny thing is, it's all true. The seance and the Nazis don't enter the picture until 80 years after Schumann's death, and all center around the premiere of his violin concerto. All the details are in hour one, plus a performance by violinist Thomas Zehetmair and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
Peter Tchaikovsky: June, from the Seasons, Op. 37B
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Jacob Clemens non Papa: Ego Flos Campi
Stile Antico
Boston Early Music Festival, Boston
Johann Sebastian Bach: Invention No. 6
Yang Wei, pipa, Daxun Zhang, bass
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Benny Golson: I Remember Clifford
Boston Brass
Virginia Arts Festival, Newport News, Virginia
Robert Schumann: Violin Concerto in D Minor
Thomas Zehetmair, violin, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Simon Rattle, conductor
The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Hour 2
Robert Schumann: Excerpts from Album for the Young, Op. 68
Daniel Levy, piano
Robert Schumann: Genoveva Overture, Op. 81
The Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pawel Przytocki, conductor
Witold Lutoslawski Concert Hall, Warsaw, Poland
Perfchat with Joyce Yang: Perfchat
Robert Schumann: Excerpts from Carnaval, Op. 9
Joyce Yang, piano
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul
Dmitri Shostakovich: Tahiti Trot, Op. 16 (Tea for Two)
The Houston Symphony Orchestra, Brett Mitchell, conductor
Jones Hall, Houston
Unsuk Chin: Mad Tea Party, from Alice in Wonderland
The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Myung-Whun Chung, conductor
KlaraFestival, Brussels, Belgium
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