“The World of Romanticism” was a subtitle of the famous Svyatoslav Richter’s music festival “December Nights”. Its programme, as it was the organizers’ intent, comprised compositions by Schubert, Schumann and Chopin. Ten day were devoted to the works of each of the composers.
In the beginning of the night which opened the ten days of Robert Schumann, Svyatoslav Richter presented the audience with a Viennese bouquet Blumenstück, Op. 19. That was what they used to call flower still life paintings in Germany (German die Blume stands for a flower, and das Stück – a thing) which were hugely popular in the 19th century. According to the author, that elegant piece appeared to be “variations with no theme” and should have been titled Garland. But later the title was replaced with Blumenstück.
Six impromptus for piano 4-hands Bilder aus Osten (“Pictures from the East”), Op. 66, were composed by Robert Schumann in 1848 and inspired by the short stories of Friedrich Rückert based on the stories The Transformations of Abu Said of Serug by Al-Hariri. The six impromptus formed a single poem with a subject resembling the evangelical parable of the prodigal son.
This disc features the performance of Bilder aus Osten by Svyatoslav Richter and Lyudmila Berlinskaya.
Robert Schumann first turned to Paganini’s works in 1832 (Six Concert Etudes, Op. 3), and then in 1833 (Six Concert Etudes, Op. 10). To Schumann, Paganini’s caprices were examples of how virtuosic technical means of the instrument could be enriched therefore facilitating the formation of the genre of concert etude. In these compositions, Schumann is a true co-author of Paganini. Schumann’s transcriptions contain lots of additions to the violin original, lots of new melodically bright second parts, for instance, in a sublime and doleful etude No. 4 in C minor included in this album.
Schumann wrote Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44, one of his best compositions, in the age of 32 and dedicated it to his wife, an outstanding pianist Clara Wieck.
At the concert of 15 December, 1985, Piano Quintet in E flat major was performed by Svyatoslav Richter and the Borodin Quartet which
included Mikhail Kopelman (1st violin), Andrei Abramenkov (2nd violin), Dmitri Shebalin (viola) and Valentin Berlinsky (cello).
