0:00

I'm John Banther, and this is Classical

0:02

Breakdown. From

0:05

WETA Classical in Washington, we're your guide

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to classical music. In this episode,

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I'm joined by WETA Classical's

0:12

Linda Carducci, and we're diving into

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the exciting and dramatic masked

0:16

ball that is Robert Schumann's Carnaval.

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Written for solo piano, he brings real

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and fictional characters to life. Linda

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and I get into the codes that Schumann also

0:25

wrote into the music, the influence

0:27

of commedia dell'arte, and more.

0:30

Plus, stay with us to the end to hear Carnaval

0:32

performed in full by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

0:39

This is a pretty popular work of

0:41

Robert Schumann's. You've probably heard

0:43

some of it or really all of it before,

0:45

even if you think it's well pretty unfamiliar.

0:49

While you don't need to know all of the extra

0:51

details necessarily to enjoy the

0:53

music, of course, in my opinion with

0:55

this piece, Linda, it really can make a difference.

0:57

It's like hearing it all over again for the

0:59

first time when you know, " Oh, this

1:02

is this character or this is happening here."

1:04

Yes, it's full of characters. So, when you understand

1:06

who they are, you can appreciate it a little bit more,

1:08

plus some of the hidden codes that

1:10

Robert Schumann gives us in this work.

1:12

That's true. Stay with us to the

1:14

end as we'll hear an entire performance

1:17

of this piece by Sergei Rachmaninoff

1:19

himself from a 1929 recording.

1:22

Okay. So, Robert Schumann, he was born in 1810.

1:25

So, he's his mid- 20s when

1:27

he wrote this in 1834, 1835.

1:30

It's also the same year he co- founded

1:33

Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, the

1:35

New Journal for Music. While

1:37

we know his spouse would be Clara

1:39

Wieck, he was actually engaged to someone else

1:41

at the time when he wrote this, Ernestine

1:44

von Fricken. So, that's to say

1:46

he's in his mid- 20s, he's got this new

1:48

job, he has some influence, he's got this piece.

1:50

Things are looking up it seems for young

1:53

Robert.

1:54

It is. We can see his imagination

1:56

flying in this piece with

1:58

many fun things. So, I

2:00

agree with you. He was probably in a good humor when he wrote

2:02

this.

2:03

Imagination, that is a great point here because

2:06

two things really come together in this work.

2:09

The first is Schumann's

2:12

real strong interest in ciphers,

2:14

numbers, symbolism, cryptograms,

2:17

using notes to spell out the

2:19

name of a person or a place. Basically,

2:21

he loved puzzles it sounds like.

2:24

Then the other part that comes together here

2:26

is his love of literature, Linda.

2:29

Yes, he was a youthful

2:32

reader. He was influenced by the literature

2:34

and poetry that is of Schiller, Goethe, Lord

2:37

Byron, Greek tragedies. He

2:39

read when he was young. He read when he was old. Of course,

2:41

he became a writer.

2:44

We will see some characters come out

2:46

from the literature that he was enjoying,

2:49

commedia dell'arte, to be

2:51

specific, even some animals like butterflies

2:53

and himself in different alter

2:56

egos. A lot comes out in this piece.

2:59

This piece is in 21

3:01

different sections, and

3:03

it's representing a

3:05

carnival, the festival before Lent.

3:08

The subtitle here, Linda, and I'm sure I'm going

3:10

to mispronounce this, right, Scènes mignonnes

3:12

sur quatre notes, little Scenes on

3:14

Four Notes.

3:15

Yes. The reason we say four notes is because

3:17

there are certain notes that Robert Schumann will repeat

3:20

here to spell out certain

3:22

things. We were talking about his love of ciphers

3:24

and codes within the music.

3:26

Yeah, but he holds off

3:28

on all of that and the literature

3:31

influence in the very first section. The

3:33

first section does not contain those ideas.

3:35

It's Préambule. That's how it's titled.

3:39

He's opening the work with a quote

3:41

from another piece he actually never finished,

3:43

variations on a theme of Schubert.

3:46

That theme comes from Schubert's Sehnsuchtswalzer.

3:50

I love this opening, Linda. In

3:52

particular, I love openings of pieces

3:54

with piano that have big block

3:57

chords, Beethoven's Hammerklavier,

4:00

this, I think Mussorgsky as well.

4:03

It's so majestic. This is actually

4:05

this introduction, one of my favorite segments

4:07

of Carnaval, because it tells you, it proclaims

4:10

to the world, " Look, we're at a grand carnival.

4:12

Oh boy, we're going to have fun tonight."

4:14

This picks up. In fact,

4:16

it feels like an overture, this

4:18

entire Préambule. I guess in

4:20

a way it is. It's a preamble and it

4:23

feels very overture- like the way it ends.

4:43

Now, the cryptograms

4:45

here in the music are done

4:47

in a couple of ways. We

4:49

have the notes, A, E

4:51

flat, C, and B. This

4:54

spells out in German A- S-

4:56

C- H or Asch.

4:59

That is the name of his fiancée's hometown.

5:03

That's also Ash for

5:05

Ash Wednesday. This is the carnival before Lent.

5:08

Yes, very clever how he puts that

5:10

in.

5:11

He's also clever in how he does it a

5:13

little differently with A flat,

5:15

C, and B. Just three notes there

5:17

and that spells out Asch in a slightly

5:19

different way. The other big one we

5:21

have is E flat, C,

5:24

B, and A, S- C-

5:26

H- A, which are the first

5:28

three letters of Schumann's name and then the A

5:30

later on. We're going to mention some of these

5:32

as we go on, but

5:35

they're not always recognizable. They tend to be

5:37

buried in the music. I mean, what good is a

5:39

puzzle, Linda, if you solve it in five

5:41

seconds? I mean, Schumann did not have Netflix.

5:44

He couldn't binge- watch Palm Royale. He had

5:46

to read and do puzzles.

5:49

It makes it all the more interesting for the listener

5:51

to try to decipher it. I have a feeling

5:53

that Robert Schumann knew that. He probably had a little smile

5:55

on his face when he thought, " Well, let's see if they can figure this

5:57

out."

5:58

I bet so. Now the second

6:00

section brings these things together

6:02

that we were just talking about. It's titled Pierrot. Pierrot

6:07

is a character like a sad

6:09

clown stock character from commedia

6:11

dell'arte. We won't get into commedia

6:14

dell'arte too much. Basically, it was like a theater,

6:16

an early type of theater with these stock

6:19

characters that was formed

6:21

early on like centuries ago in Italy.

6:23

Yeah, 16th to 18th century. It would travel

6:25

all over Europe. It originated in Italy, but it

6:27

became popular all over Europe. It had

6:29

certain stock characters in each of these, and

6:32

it consisted of a group

6:34

of small skits. We would see these

6:36

characters in action.

6:38

Pierrot is

6:41

that sad clown. I think a modern example

6:43

is, if

6:45

you remember Seinfeld, the clown in

6:47

the episode, The Opera, I think it's called The Opera

6:50

episode. That's Pierrot, Pagliacci,

6:53

that character. He

6:55

wears the white blouse, the large buttons,

6:57

the pantaloons, the painted white face, a

7:00

little less scary than the sad clown paintings,

7:02

I remember.

7:03

Exaggerated eyes and maybe show little teardrops

7:06

falling from it.

7:07

We also have in the music one

7:10

of those ciphers, A, E flat,

7:12

C, and B, which spells

7:15

Asch, which is German for again his fiancee's

7:17

hometown, and Ash Wednesday. Knowing

7:22

that this is a sad clown, it makes

7:24

the movement here even more interesting

7:27

in the music. It sounds like this sad clown is

7:29

doing some gestural, slightly

7:31

funny stepping around the stage, maybe some

7:33

sad clown joke with these little gestures

7:36

that pop out too.

7:37

Yes. It's quite a contrast from that very

7:39

fun lively introduction

7:41

that we heard that was majestic at parts, but also

7:43

had a lively dance. So, now we have Pierrot, which is

7:46

a very different type of tone,

7:48

quite a contrast.

7:57

That's right. It is quite a contrast. It makes me think

7:59

we've walked into this masked ball

8:01

and Pierrot is like a hired

8:03

character, someone who's walking around

8:06

the party in this character and

8:08

taking photos, but hearing sad clown,

8:10

I really hear that in the music. I

8:14

really hear in the next section, Linda,

8:17

as well, another character from

8:19

commedia dell'arte. This one's called Arlequin,

8:22

and it's a depiction of, as you might guess, Harlequin,

8:25

another character from commedia dell'arte.

8:28

I would say the modern example of this that we know

8:30

that I probably knew first is Harley

8:33

Quinn from the comic books

8:35

and the movies and TV shows that

8:37

were played by Margot Robbie and Kaley Cuoco.

8:40

That's coming from Arlequin. He

8:42

wears that checkered costume. He's like a jokester, I think.

8:45

Yes, he's very agile, he's lively,

8:47

he's nimble. He stands in

8:50

great contrast to Pierrot who

8:52

preceded him.

8:54

This one also has movement

8:57

in the music that makes me think of this character going

8:59

around on stage, very light and nimble,

9:01

and making fools of people

9:03

along the way. We

9:09

do also hear the A, E flat,

9:11

C, B motif towards

9:13

the beginning. He also hides

9:15

these by rhythmically making them very

9:18

ambiguous or these notes together

9:20

make the cryptogram, but

9:23

within the melody, it's like almost

9:25

doesn't make sense if you just pull those notes out by

9:27

themselves.

9:27

That's true. That's very true. By the way, some

9:29

of these notes that form these cryptograms,

9:32

these letters and these words, they're not

9:34

always in the melody. They're not real obvious and

9:36

standing right at you in the melody.

9:38

That's right.

9:38

Yeah. A lot of times they're hidden in the bass. They might be hidden

9:41

in the tenor. By the way, may I

9:43

also mention before I forget, that

9:45

some of the characters

9:48

that will appear in Schumann's Carnaval

9:50

are grouped together in pairs purposefully?

9:53

Yes.

9:54

We'll see that as we progress, but this was a perfect

9:56

example. These two clowns, these are two contrasting

9:58

clowns that are paired right at the top together.

10:03

After this, we go into the fourth section,

10:05

Vals noble. You'll notice that

10:07

the sections go quickly between the

10:10

two. There's not a lot of space that pianist

10:12

put in between. This one, we

10:14

have no characters. We don't have any codes or ciphers

10:17

in the music. It's just a nice

10:19

waltz and it feels very Viennese in a fantasy

10:22

type way. Linda,

10:25

when I think of a masked ball,

10:27

I think of maybe modern media

10:29

versions, which is it's sinister,

10:31

maybe weird. I don't know. I don't have a

10:33

lot of context for it, but I

10:35

think of also another ball

10:37

like in Symphonie Fantastique

10:40

by Berlioz, which has a delirious quality.

10:43

I just found myself thinking of that. When I listened

10:45

to this, depending on how the pianist plays with a

10:47

tempo, this also has

10:49

a delirious type quality to it.

10:51

Yeah, that's right. Almost like

10:53

a water, a misty

10:57

thing. I agree with you completely. It serves

10:59

this waltz as a palate

11:02

cleanser, if you will. I think that's how you were referring

11:04

to it between the clowns that we just heard

11:07

and two new characters that we will just hear.

11:09

So, he inserts this little waltz in it. But

11:11

as you say too, there's not quite a sinister

11:14

part to it, but it's not necessarily

11:16

a beautiful waltz. But when we think

11:19

about these carnivals that occurred

11:21

in, say, Venice in the 16th century,

11:23

some of them were quite mysterious. There sometimes

11:25

was a little bit of a sinister element to it.

11:29

I don't know if I would've survived those. Now,

11:32

we get to the fifth section,

11:35

and as you said, Linda, this is the first of two

11:37

characters that are paired together. This

11:39

is Eusebius. Who is Eusebius?

11:42

Yeah, Eusebius. He is an alter

11:44

ego of Robert Schumann, but actually,

11:46

Schumann got the name from a character

11:48

in a Jean- Paul novel

11:51

called Eusebius, who was a character

11:53

who was very introverted and reflective.

11:56

So, Eusebius as the alter

11:58

ego of Robert Schumann reflects

12:01

Robert Schumann's thoughtful,

12:03

reflective, meditative side, a

12:05

dreamer.

12:07

It does feel very

12:09

introspective. It feels like maybe he came

12:11

up with this late at night, alone

12:14

at the piano. The candles

12:16

almost burnt out. It almost sounds like a piece of music

12:18

he would play just for himself

12:21

as a warm down. Musicians will

12:23

also warm down if people don't know. It

12:25

sounds like he's just doing a nice little thing with

12:28

that.

12:29

It is. It's rather slow. He gives you the melody

12:31

at the beginning, which is a very nice melody,

12:33

but what I love about this particular section,

12:36

John, the Eusebius, is that

12:38

Robert Schumann expands on

12:41

it a little bit with a bigger fuller

12:43

chord and bigger fuller bass. I

12:46

think that part is beautiful.

12:48

It has beautiful aspects alongside the

12:51

dark, mysterious Schumann

12:53

standing by the stereo

12:55

at the party being all brooding

12:58

or something. I don't know.

12:58

Yeah.

12:59

But that

13:04

goes into Florestan, which

13:06

is the other

13:08

side of that, the alter ego, I guess, his

13:11

more fiery side. This also

13:13

comes from a Jean- Paul

13:15

novel. Florestan is

13:18

to represent this impetuous side

13:21

of Schumann. It's also half

13:23

the length of the previous section.

13:27

We've got a lot more going

13:29

on within it as well and

13:31

a lot of ruminating

13:33

in it I think as well. Some things are repeated

13:35

again and again.

13:36

Yes. He also quotes something

13:39

from Papillon, which is a piano

13:41

work that he composed before Carnaval.

13:45

I wonder how many people would've caught on some

13:47

of these little quotes and things

13:49

like that because it is a totally unrelated work

13:51

he wrote earlier, but it does sound

13:53

like it comes back purposefully to interrupt

13:55

some of these gestures.

13:57

Yes. Also, we'll see another

13:59

section coming up that is specifically

14:01

devoted to Papillon that does not quote

14:04

his earlier work, Papillon.

14:06

Yes.

14:06

Interesting too about Eusebius and Florestan

14:09

that we're talking about right now, this pairing of

14:12

two completely different moods, two different

14:14

characters, Eusebius being reflective

14:17

and a dreaming person, Florestan

14:20

being the absolute opposite, passionate

14:22

and fiery. We see that. We just

14:24

saw that parallel with those two clowns

14:26

that were completely opposite.

14:27

Yes. Okay. So, this

14:30

is what also makes it more... Not

14:32

more interesting to listen to, but having

14:34

some of these details will have

14:36

you listening in a different way. The

14:39

next section is a lot

14:41

of fun. I like this one. It's the seventh one

14:43

and it's labeled Coquette, which is

14:46

a flirtatious girl. This

14:48

one, I love it because it sounds

14:50

light, it sounds nimble,

14:53

it sounds light- footed

14:55

like the Arlequin section from before.

14:57

But now we have this young

15:00

woman who has had maybe a couple too

15:02

many drinks and she's walking around the ball

15:04

and talking, but no one's really talking back.

15:07

You hear the hiccups in the

15:09

music. I hear these hiccups as she's walking around,

15:11

talking to people, but no one's really

15:13

interacting back with her.

15:15

Yeah. I think this is a perfect example of Robert

15:17

Schumann's creativity to be able to

15:19

depict all of that you just said, with

15:21

two hands musically on a piano.

15:29

It gets really creative with the next

15:31

section, Replique, if I'm

15:33

saying that correctly. This is a reply

15:36

to the Coquette and the transition

15:38

is very clever. I

15:41

think it's endearing because if you are

15:43

just listening to this and not looking at a track

15:46

list on Spotify or something

15:48

like that, you might think the beginning

15:50

of this is still from the previous

15:52

section. This reply

15:54

opens with the same cadence

15:57

and the same way that the Coquette one opens

15:59

up.

15:59

It shows you, again, the connection as we've

16:02

seen now pairs that Robert

16:04

Schumann is giving us. He's pairing things. These

16:06

two are pairs. So, the Coquette and

16:09

then paired with what you were just talking about, the

16:11

Replique, so they fit together.

16:13

The reply makes you wonder, " Is

16:15

she being lectured? Is she being

16:17

humored?" It sounds like towards the end, she's

16:20

brought to a chair maybe to just rest.

16:22

It sounds like she's still saying things and

16:24

hiccupping, but it's getting softer and softer.

16:26

Right, somebody trying to calm her down

16:28

a little bit.

16:31

Then we get to the next section,

16:34

which I guess I

16:36

can't really say a number for this one, and that'll

16:38

make sense why in a moment, but this

16:40

one is called Sphinxs.

16:43

Maybe you can enlighten us on this one, Linda.

16:45

Yeah, the word sphinx, it

16:48

comes from Greek, and of course, we have all

16:50

seen images of the sphinx in Egypt

16:52

that has a head of a man,

16:55

a body of a lion, and

16:57

wings of an eagle. The word

16:59

sphinx means different things,

17:01

but etymologists will some say

17:03

means a living image. Some

17:06

people though think it means squeeze

17:09

because there was a legend that a sphinx would

17:11

strangle anyone who

17:13

failed to answer her riddles. Now,

17:15

we've heard this before in Turandot.

17:19

That's true.

17:20

Yeah. Now, of course, Puccini didn't come up with

17:22

the story of Turandot. He took it from legend.

17:24

So, you see, there's these legends that

17:26

are transformed in various

17:28

cultures.

17:29

Wow. I mean, if I was approached

17:31

by a sphinx, this

17:34

thing with a human head, and it's going

17:36

to squeeze you if you don't answer her riddles correct, I mean, pass.

17:39

I'm going to find another way around this bridge.

17:41

Yeah, yeah. Why

17:44

did he incorporate sphinx though? That is

17:46

the question.

17:47

It is, and the more intriguing thing

17:49

about this for me is this is

17:51

barely even a section. I scrolled

17:53

past it. It lasts only

17:56

seconds. It's three measures.

17:58

There's no dynamics. There's no tempo. There's

18:00

basically no rhythm that written as double whole

18:03

notes. It's as almost no music, and

18:05

it's just the notes of those

18:08

cryptograms that we mentioned before, E

18:10

flat, C, B, A,

18:14

A flat, C, B, and

18:17

then A, E flat, C,

18:19

B. That's the whole, I just named all of

18:21

the notes.

18:22

So maybe that's the idea between incorporating

18:24

them. He wants to remind us of what he

18:26

is using in this entire piece. Maybe

18:28

that's the reason. I

18:30

will say that Clara Schumann,

18:32

who eventually married, did not encourage

18:35

people to include Sphinxs when

18:37

they were performing the entire Carnaval. Certainly,

18:40

you'll find some recordings that don't include it, but

18:42

there are some very famous pianists who

18:44

definitely included it, and that is Rachmaninoff

18:46

who will hear later. Horowitz included it,

18:49

Michelangeli included it. I've heard

18:51

various versions of it. Some people play

18:53

it rather fast, even though they're double hole notes,

18:56

but there's no meter of course on it. There's no tempo

18:58

marking. Some pianists play

19:00

it very slowly, almost

19:02

as if a sphinx were moving.

19:05

There is one version where somebody added

19:07

a tremolo to the bass underneath

19:09

it.

19:09

Okay.

19:10

So yeah.

19:10

It's very interesting. You

19:13

wonder why exactly Clara Schumann

19:15

recommended that people omit it.

19:17

As you said, some do and some don't. Mitsuko

19:20

Uchida, who we've been sampling

19:22

from so far, includes

19:25

it in her recording. So,

19:27

that's another thing to see. Well, who includes it?

19:29

Who doesn't and why?

19:32

But from a terrifying creature that will strangle

19:34

you or smush you if you don't answer her riddle,

19:36

we go to something more beautiful,

19:39

Papillon. This is what you said before,

19:41

it's unrelated to his earlier work

19:43

of the same name. Butterflies

19:46

have just inspired many, many

19:49

composers.

19:49

Haven't they? They're so light and pretty, almost

19:52

like the Coquettes that we heard a little bit earlier that just

19:54

dances around.

19:55

Yeah, but they're also so fragile

19:57

and they have short lives.

19:58

Yes. He will

20:01

pair that though with the next one,

20:03

Papillon will be paired with

20:05

the next segment that we will hear.

20:08

Yes. In the next section, this

20:10

one is titled A. S. C. H.

20:13

S. C. H. A. It's those cryptograms,

20:16

her hometown, his fiancée,

20:18

and then his name and a subtitle

20:21

to the movement is Lettres Dansantes

20:23

or Dance of the Letters.

20:25

Yeah, which is a perfect name for this because

20:27

he's really bringing us again, as he did with Sphinx,

20:30

these letters that he's playing with throughout this

20:32

entire work. So, he has them dancing together.

20:35

Yes. It makes you think, well, at the masked

20:37

ball, which again, we're still at a masked ball

20:39

that they have danced together

20:42

either maybe unknowingly.

20:44

I mean those masks, I see them put on their

20:46

face that they hold up. I mean, it's not a mask, right?

20:49

You can tell who everyone is, I think.

20:51

Yeah, it covers the eyes mostly, I think. That's

20:53

right.

20:54

Maybe that's part of it as well, the mysteriousness of

20:56

it, that there's this chance of dance between

20:59

the letters and the characters.

21:01

Yes. So, in this case, in dancing letters,

21:03

we'll have Ernestine dancing

21:05

with Robert Schumann. We know that because he's using

21:07

the letters in the pitches

21:09

that match those letters, but he pairs it with Papillon.

21:12

So, maybe he's pairing it with Papillon because

21:14

he's thinking of themselves as dancing butterflies,

21:16

flitting around.

21:18

This moment we have together is fleeting,

21:20

like the life of a butterfly. Just a

21:23

little more romantic with it.

21:24

You're right.

21:24

We'll get into

21:27

another depiction of a person he knew well,

21:29

right after this. Classical

21:32

Breakdown, your guide to classical music,

21:34

is made possible by WETA

21:36

Classical. Join us for the music

21:39

and insightful commentary anytime

21:41

day or night. You can stream their

21:43

music online at wetaclassical.org

21:47

or through the WETA Classical app.

21:49

It's free in the App Store. Now,

21:54

for the 11th section, which is titled

21:57

Chiarina, which is a depiction

22:00

of Clara Wieck, which of course

22:02

he would go on to marry. It's subtitled

22:04

or the tempo marking is Passionato, so

22:07

passionate. This is interesting.

22:09

We know that the two would marry. At

22:12

the time he wrote this, he was engaged to

22:14

Ernestine. Clara was about 15 or 16

22:17

when he wrote this, and she was already,

22:19

I believe, a known person at this time. She

22:21

was touring Europe as a pianist. She was respected

22:26

and known. What I love about this

22:28

depiction is how passionate it

22:31

sounds. It sounds like something

22:33

later on from a 25, 30-

22:35

minute sonata, and we're just getting

22:37

a glimpse into the

22:40

music, which I guess is a representation

22:42

of her as a character.

22:45

I think it just shows the passion that is already

22:47

blooming in his mind

22:49

of her. He respects her so much. The

22:51

question I asked originally when I heard

22:54

this is, " Why is he calling it Chiarina? Why doesn't he

22:56

just call it Clara?" But

22:58

they're at a masked ball, remember? So everybody

23:00

is a little bit into disguise here.

23:02

Yes. Everyone's holding up that mask half- heartedly

23:04

to their face. This

23:07

one, it opens with notes, A flat, C,

23:10

B, one of those Asch cryptic

23:12

motifs. This

23:17

passionate section goes into

23:19

a section that's labeled as Agitato,

23:22

and this section is called Chopin.

23:24

What a depiction

23:27

of Chopin with this.

23:28

Yeah. This is one of my favorite sections of entire Carnaval.

23:30

When I talk to people about Carnaval, about

23:32

this piece, one of the first things people say is, "

23:35

Oh, that's Chopin's section," because

23:37

this is quite a dead

23:39

ringer for a Chopin Nocturne.

23:41

It just shows you Schumann's

23:44

talent that he could write his own music

23:47

in his own words and his own character, all

23:49

this music, and yet he

23:51

could figure out what Chopin was doing too

23:53

and imitate that. Now,

23:56

Chopin, apparently

23:58

from what I have read, was not pleased with this.

24:00

He thought that maybe Schumann was making a parody of

24:02

him. I don't look at it that way. I look

24:04

at it as an homage and

24:07

I think a beautiful homage. It sounds

24:09

almost exactly like a Nocturne

24:11

that Chopin would write, not only in the melody,

24:13

but also in the accompaniment with the broken

24:16

arpeggios.

24:20

That's exactly what it sounds like. Also,

24:23

the key, A flat major, that

24:25

sounds like a very Chopin- esque key to me.

24:27

Definitely.

24:29

So from Chiarina, Clara to

24:32

Chopin, we go to our next

24:35

depiction, and this is called Estrella

24:38

Con Affetto. That's with affection.

24:40

This is depicting Ernestine von Fricken,

24:42

his fiancée. This

24:45

one's short, maybe 25 seconds

24:47

long.

24:51

When I hear Estrella, I know it

24:53

is marked Con Affetto, but when

24:55

I compare that to Chiarina that we just

24:57

heard, in which he describes Clara, I

25:00

get him more agitated as

25:02

the temple marking says, an agitated tone

25:07

in the music as opposed to Chiarina. For Chiarina,

25:09

I get passion, something that he feels

25:12

for her. With Estrella, I almost get a sense

25:14

that he's a little bit annoyed. That's

25:17

just the sense I get.

25:20

When you said those words together, like that affection

25:23

and passionate, it really makes

25:25

you think, " Well, there's passion, then there's affection."

25:27

Those are two different things.

25:28

Yes.

25:30

Well, they come together for the 14th

25:32

movement or section, Reconnaissance.

25:35

This is animated, and this is supposed to be

25:37

depicting Schumann and Ernestina

25:40

recognizing each other at

25:42

the ball. Now, like I said, I've never been to a masked

25:44

ball, but this sounds like with how

25:46

the color changes every few measures,

25:48

it sounds like each glance

25:51

means something different, either

25:54

affection or love or

25:56

maybe something else. It feels like we're getting all of

25:58

these glances and they're becoming more sure of each other

26:01

as the movement goes on.

26:02

Yes, because there is a slower

26:05

section, I believe in

26:07

the B section, it's a little bit more intimate,

26:10

maybe a little bit more loving than

26:12

some of the animation that otherwise we hear in

26:14

Reconnaissance. It

26:16

is between Robert Schumann and

26:19

Estrella or Ernestine who was his

26:22

fiancée at the time.

26:25

That one also opens with the A flat,

26:27

C, B motif, which is also in the

26:30

other sections too. So, those are all tied

26:32

in. It brings us to section

26:34

number 15, Pantalon et

26:36

Colombine. This is Presto.

26:39

It's quick. These are also characters,

26:41

Pantalon et Colombine from commedia

26:44

dell'arte. Pantalone

26:46

is the greedy character.

26:48

He wants money, he wants status.

26:50

Columbina is the down- to- earth servant

26:52

who was often the target for

26:54

Pantalone's advances. I

26:57

love this movement, Linda, so

26:59

much. I'll tell you why, because

27:02

there's two characters. Columbina

27:04

is only the last two notes.

27:06

The entire thing is Pantalone because they're

27:09

at this ball and he's just

27:11

talking to her a mile a minute about his money,

27:14

his stock portfolio, his vacation house, his

27:16

private beach, his crypto, this, and that. Then

27:18

he stops at the end to let her just

27:20

say something and it's just like she says, "

27:22

Okay," and then

27:24

walks away sipping her drink. I

27:27

love it.

27:27

She cuts it all off at the end.

27:29

Yes.

27:31

Pantalon was a stock character

27:33

from commedia dell'arte. He was not

27:35

a loved character because he would portray someone

27:37

who was always chasing after the women and

27:39

was bragging and all. But Colombine, a very

27:42

nice servant who

27:45

was also the target of one

27:47

of the clowns that we saw earlier.

27:48

That's true. So, she's being pursued,

27:51

but at least in this way, I love how it's just like, " Okay."

27:54

Yeah.

27:55

She walks away. The next

27:58

section are actually

28:00

two sections, 16 and 17, Valse

28:03

allemande and Paganini.

28:05

So, we have this type of German waltz

28:08

that feels like another type of palate

28:10

cleanser, a waltz in between the action that's

28:12

going on around. It sounds

28:15

nice. There's not much to say about it. Then

28:17

you get to the Paganini section and it's quite

28:20

obvious. It's very virtuosic. It

28:23

feels like you're just pounding your hands back and forth

28:25

with each other. I imagine when you're playing the piano, that's what it's like.

28:28

Yes. It's interesting that he paired the

28:30

Valse allemande, which is a very

28:32

traditional German dance, very lovely, with

28:35

Paganini that it's just so fiery. Paganini

28:37

took the imagination of everybody. He was a great 19th

28:40

century virtuoso violinist.

28:43

Schumann and Paganini apparently did not know

28:45

each other, but at the time

28:47

that Robert Schumann was writing this, everybody knew

28:50

of Paganini as the great virtuoso.

28:52

It's just like this nice waltz. Paganini

28:55

explodes on the scene, and then it ends

28:57

nice and light like how it

29:00

began. So, number

29:09

18 is Aveu,

29:12

and this is also Passionato. This

29:14

is a depiction of

29:17

love, a confession of love. I imagine

29:19

at a masked ball, there's multiple

29:21

confessions of love. I also imagine there's multiple

29:23

breakups happening as well at these things.

29:25

Yes, everybody is dolled up at these

29:27

things. Yes, you're wearing your little eye mask,

29:29

but of course, your hair is up. You can imagine these

29:32

17th or 16th century

29:34

gorgeous carnivals in Venice

29:37

saying everybody is dressed to the nines with

29:39

beautiful gowns and all this. So,

29:41

there are some declarations of love going

29:43

on. Robert Schumann was a very passionate

29:46

man anyway. He was falling in love. He fell

29:48

in love with Estrella or Ernestine. That

29:50

didn't work out, and then he fell passionately in love

29:53

with Clara. That was part of the time too,

29:55

the Romantic Era when people showed

29:58

their love and they were very expressive.

30:01

This Aveu, love,

30:03

number 18 section is paired

30:05

with, I would say with number 19,

30:08

Promenade. This sounds like,

30:10

yeah, we're moving in some

30:12

way. Are we walking around outside?

30:15

Maybe inside around the

30:17

party. I imagine this big hall with this party

30:20

going on in the middle. I wonder

30:22

if it's a cleanser or a

30:24

device used like a Mussorgsky

30:26

in a sense with his promenades

30:28

from pictures at an exhibition, a device to

30:31

get you from one place to another with a palate

30:34

cleanser.

30:34

Yes, exactly, or the two lovers finally

30:36

realized that they love each other in the avowal

30:39

of love, and now they're walking together

30:42

very slowly and gazing into each other's

30:44

eyes.

30:44

Okay, I like that better. I like that better. Number

30:49

20, we're getting towards the end. Remember, there's

30:52

only 21 sections. Only 21

30:54

sections. Number 20

30:56

is fascinating, Pause

30:58

or Pause. This is like

31:01

15 seconds long. I mean, this

31:03

section is remarkable. It sounds

31:05

like a modern device

31:07

from film. All of a sudden, he's

31:10

recapping the entire party. It's super-

31:12

fast, fast forward. When you see things fast forward,

31:14

rewind in a movie, and then it slows down

31:16

to the present moment. It slows

31:18

down into this march,

31:21

which is the number 21 section,

31:24

Davidsbündler March. Tell us about

31:26

this. This one is different.

31:27

Yeah, the Davidsbündler was an imaginary

31:30

society of Robert Schumann.

31:32

Remember he was a writer. So, he would put

31:34

together in his writings. He

31:36

would talk about the Davidsbündler, which

31:39

was an imaginary group of

31:42

artists. These

31:45

artists were advancing

31:47

the aesthetics during the Romantic

31:49

Era of art. They

31:52

were against what they call the Philistines,

31:54

who were people that weren't very artistically

31:57

inclined. They were more interested

31:59

in making money. So,

32:01

they were not interested in intellectual pursuits

32:03

or artistic pursuits.

32:06

So, this imaginary band

32:08

of people who Schumann called the

32:10

Davidsbündler were against the Philistines.

32:13

So, they all seem to gather at the very

32:16

end of this grand carnival now to

32:18

march and march their cause.

32:20

Yeah. I'm just thinking about

32:22

Robert Schumann. He's in his 20s.

32:25

He's got this new journal. It's

32:28

doing well, I imagine, but it's not fully what

32:30

it is quite yet. He can't quite

32:32

go out and say, " You know what? This composer,

32:34

this composer, this critic, you are all

32:37

terrible. You are all old- fashioned.

32:39

Get out of here." He's got to say, " Oh, these

32:41

are the Philistines

32:44

and we don't like this old, outdated

32:47

idea. We want this new

32:49

one." He's getting away with

32:51

being critical of people

32:53

in power he might not be able to be critical

32:56

of otherwise. Musically,

32:58

he's doing that with this dance that's known as a Grossvatertanz,

33:02

this old fuddy duddy dance

33:04

that then the Davidsbündler

33:07

people march against. So, I wonder if

33:09

there's that aspect to it. He's saying

33:11

things without having to name

33:13

names or stick his neck out.

33:15

They're very good point. That's a good observation

33:17

to be very diplomatic and hide

33:20

almost like the masked ball. Everybody's hiding.

33:22

He's almost hiding that way.

33:23

Yes. He's a little scared himself. He

33:25

couldn't come out and say what he wanted

33:28

to at that time. This

33:31

piece was also probably new

33:33

at the time as well. I

33:36

mean 1830s, there weren't a lot of other works like

33:38

this with all of

33:40

these different sections bringing together literature

33:43

and real life and almost, not

33:45

parody, but that Chopin movement we talked about.

33:47

It's really like Chopin.

33:49

Yes, it is. Can you imagine the difference between

33:51

this and say another one of his

33:53

contemporaries who was writing rather typically

33:55

classical music? That was Felix Mendelssohn.

33:58

Mendelssohn was born just a year before Robert

34:01

Schumann, and they knew each other and respected

34:03

each other. But Robert Schumann took

34:05

this flight of fancy as a young man and

34:08

showed a creativity that I

34:10

think Mendelssohn and earlier composers

34:12

did not show. They wrote in a more traditional way.

34:16

It's almost like he writes this and then a

34:18

march at the end with these

34:20

ideals. He's walking into his publisher's office

34:22

and slamming the score on the desk. The

34:25

future is now, old man. This

34:27

is the new type of stuff.

34:28

Yes.

34:29

But this really ties everything together. This

34:31

final section, you hear things from earlier

34:33

popping in and out, even a little quote of

34:36

Beethoven as well. The

34:39

way it ends is not

34:42

traditional, but it almost sounds Chopin-

34:44

esque buttoned up to my ears as well, that

34:46

bass hit and then the right hand

34:48

up top.

34:49

Yes.

35:04

I said at the beginning, I love those openings.

35:07

I also like these kinds of endings. It's that bass

35:09

and then the right hand.

35:10

He was taking full advantage of the

35:12

advancement of the piano that was allowing

35:14

all of these wild dynamics and larger

35:17

sounds.

35:18

Yes. As we learned in our own piano episode,

35:21

this was not possible 100 years before

35:23

this.

35:23

Oh no, you couldn't have done it this on the clavichord certainly,

35:25

not even on the harpsichord.

35:27

So that is Carnaval by

35:29

Robert Schumann. I

35:31

was thinking yesterday, Linda, of ways

35:33

that you can listen to this. You hear it in concerts

35:35

or in a recital or on the radio

35:38

or something. I have never

35:40

thought to myself though, I'm

35:42

going to listen to just this section of

35:44

Carnaval. I want to listen to Chiarina

35:47

or Papillon or whatever. No,

35:50

I don't have any desire to do that. It's almost like, "

35:52

Would you go to a masked ball by yourself if

35:54

you're the only person there?"

35:55

No.

35:55

You're going to sit at home and watch TV. So, in

35:59

that sense, I love listening to this all

36:02

at once with all the characters together.

36:03

Oh, yeah. That great ending where it brings

36:06

all of them back together and you hear themes

36:08

of some of the earlier ones all

36:10

together. It just ties it up with a nice

36:12

big bow at the end.

36:15

Before we get to that recording of Rachmaninoff,

36:17

let's go to your reviews from

36:19

Apple Podcasts. What do we have this

36:21

time, Linda?

36:22

John, we have a nice review from Great

36:25

Britain. Andy JF

36:27

gave us five stars and he said, "

36:30

Wonderful pod. Always enjoy these

36:32

episodes. It's great to discover new works

36:34

to explore like the recent

36:36

Haydn and the evolution of the piano

36:39

was so well put together. Thanks." Well,

36:41

we thank you, Andy JF, from Great

36:44

Britain and everybody who listens.

36:45

Yes, thank you for the five stars. I always

36:47

love five stars. That's the best.

36:49

Yet the evolution of the piano one, that was you

36:52

and me. That was a fun one to

36:54

put together too.

36:55

It was. I think that you maybe can put it into context

36:57

now that we're talking about Carnaval.

36:58

Yes. I mean, it's helped me listen to this

37:00

differently as well. Okay. Now,

37:03

as promised, we have this historical recording

37:05

of this piece. This is from 1929,

37:08

and it will sound like it's from 1929.

37:11

But in this case, being that it's Sergei

37:13

Rachmaninoff, we can listen past

37:15

some of the noise and sound

37:18

quality of it to hear, " Well, how did

37:20

Rachmaninoff actually play this?" Here's

37:23

Sergei Rachmaninoff at the piano for

37:25

this 1929 European recording

37:27

of Carnaval by Robert Schumann.