Schumann

Summary

Dominique Pagani often contrasts Schumann with Schubert: he sets the "Schumannian torrent", nocturnal and driven by a strategy of flight, against Schubert's still water1. He finds Schumann's lieder more nocturnal and less transparent, and his music more harmonic, already turned towards Debussy2. He shows him as restless and anxious, crushed by Beethoven, coming to the orchestra only late, pushed by Liszt, with a first symphony inspired by Jean Paul's Siebenkäs3. He sees him as a generous critic, who understands Schubert's "heavenly lengths" and finds his great symphony at his brother's home, and who, in his review of the Fantastique, judges the programme degrading4. He recalls his cult of Bach, his defence of Heine, whose poems he set to music, and his remark that Wagner is a "chatty boy". He returns to The Prophet Bird, a piece he calls pre-Debussyist, and to the Requiem for Mignon5. He notes that the young Nietzsche adored him before rejecting him.

1. 1#1 Schubert and the master singers3 Dec 2020 · 12:16
2. 2#17 Interpretation25 Mar 2021 · 37:17
3. 3#1 Schubert and the master singers3 Dec 2020 · 6:18
4. 4#16 Programme music, pure music10 Mar 2021 · 27:56
5. 5#1 Mignon, or the song of silence7 Apr 2021 · 50:38

Summary produced automatically from 46 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.