Schumannian tremors, transformation is afoot! More analysis of musical diplomacy and the Wagnerian legacy in Northeast Asia to be released shortly at SinoNK.com. I’ll be performing in Berlin in April, analyzing and performing music in South Korea in late May at a lecture-recital, and completing the sweep with more musical diplomacy with the Amitayus Duo in Sichuan province in late June and early July; more … Continue reading Schumann in Hong Kong
I’m pleased to be performing as the soloist with the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra in what the press release calls Robert Schumann’s “darkly romantic” Cello Concerto in A minor. More information on the performance, which will take place on Saturday, January 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Benoyara Hall, is available here from Seattle’s premier venue for classical music. Continue reading Darkly Romantic
On a cold-by-Sichuan-standard evening not long ago, I teamed up with composer-pianist Gao Ping to present two collections of character pieces by Robert Schumann to a fine audience of literati in Chengdu’s hub of print and chamber music culture, The Bookworm. Alas, no sound recordings were made, but we made short work of the Fantasiestucke as well as the Five Pieces in Folk Style, and … Continue reading Bookworming, Burrowing, Heralding Schumann’s Rebirth
Here are a couple of glimpses into the rehearsal room for an as-yet-unannounced performance I have planned of music by the great German romantic master, Robert Schumann. It’s certainly labored in spots, and far from flawless, but the general outlines of something hopefully worthwhile are emerging. Rehearsing with a pianist, it seems, is a bit like writing drafts with your editor sitting next to you. … Continue reading Cogitating Schumann
Heinrich Heine and Robert Schumann are each like a giant mountain. To climb either one, to survey and to know the whole output of either man is to stumble up a dream-slope matted with blood and struggle — impossibility! Yet somehow, when placed simultaneously, in opposition, the mountains become easier to climb. Heine’s poetry amply illuminates itself, but it also sheds beam after beam of … Continue reading Challenges
