Synopsis
Today, a love story.
In the year 1840, the immensely talented German pianist Clara Wieck was eagerly awaiting the eve of her 21st birthday, when she would be free to legally marry the 30-year-old composer and music critic Robert Schumann. The couple had hoped to wed years earlier, but the match was bitterly opposed by Clara’s father. The situation turned ugly, and the whole matter ended up in the German courts.
Clara and Robert kept in touch by letters, which were sometimes intercepted by Papa Wieck. Schumann, for his part, buried himself in his music, composing furiously until Clara would come of age.
Early in 1840 Clara wrote, “Dear Robert, I love you so much it hurts my heart. Tell me what you’re writing. I would so love to know. Oh please, please… a quartet, an overture—even perhaps a symphony? Might it by any chance be—a wedding present?”
The marriage finally took place on today’s date in 1840. As she had guessed, Robert presented Clara with a musical wedding present: not a quartet, overture, or symphony, but a song cycle, a “Myrten”, consisting of 26 songs, which were published as his Opus 25.
The opening song, entitled “Dedication,” is a setting of a Rückert poem which contains this refrain: “You are my heart and soul, my bliss and pain, you are the world I live in and the heaven I aspire to, my good angel, my better self.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) (transcribed by Franz Liszt) Widmung Michael Ponti, piano Marco Polo 223.127
Robert Schumann Widmung, fr Op. 25 Sophie Daneman, soprano; Julius Drake, piano EMI 72828
On This Day
Births
1825 - Austrian flautist and conductor Karl Doppler, in Lwow;
1901 - German composer Ernst Pepping, in Duisburg;
1906 - Soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Sept. 25);
1939 - American composer Phillip Ramey, in Chicago;
Deaths
1764 - French composer Jean Philippe Rameau, age 80, in Paris;.
Premieres
1910 - Mahler: Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") in Munich, with the composer conducting;
1932 - Villa-Lobos: "Bachianas Brasilieras" No. 1, in Rio de Janerio;
1937 - Milhaud: "Suite Provençale" in Venice, conducted by the composer;
1954 - Bernstein: "Serenade" (after Plato's "Symposium") at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with composer conducting and Isaac Stern the violin soloist;
1967 - Kokonen: Symphony No. 3, in Helsinki;
1969 - Henri Lazarof: Cello Concerto, in Oslo, Norway;
Others
1840 - Marriage of Robert Schumann, age 30, to Clara Wieck, on the day before her 21st birthday.
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.