Clara Wieck-Schumann - Scherzo No. 2 in C minor, Op. 14 (1845) [ + ATCL practice tips]

Written in 1845, Wieck-Schumann's Scherzo in C minor was one of her few compositions from that decade that she actively programmed into her concerts. The Scherzo's opening episode forms a substantial part of the development section of her Sonata in G minor [1841-42]. Her self-ambivalence towards her creativity likely led her not to perform or publish the Sonata during her lifetime. The Scherzo was performed on several occasions and well-received by the public and critics. It represents her aesthetic ideology for German Romanticism in the 1840s - that the public needed works that could be accessible, impressive and colourfully expressive, yet meaningful and not an empty display of virtuosity. Wieck-Schumann quoted her own theme from 'Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen' (He Came in Storm and Rain), a lieder she contributed to the Schumanns' collective Liebesfrühling [1840]. The turbulent piano accompaniment swirls urgently beneath an anxiously beseeching soprano line in a masterful soundpainting of Friedrich Rückert's text. In this Scherzo and the Sonata's development section, the theme is often in the tenor voice, seemingly representing the enigmatic 'He' of Rückert's text. Dark and dramatic with two moments of reprieve, this Scherzo's passionate and fiery character defies the title's meaning. It reminds us of Schumann's review of Chopin's Scherzo No. 1: "How is ‘gravity’ to clothe itself if ‘jest’ goes about in dark veils?" Programme notes © 2020 by Ning Hui See. Please do not reproduce without the author's permission. For Rückert's text: https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/626 #ClaraSchumann #WomenComposers #Scherzo For the Sonata in G minor:    • Clara Wieck-Schumann - Piano Sonata in G m...   Recorded in the Performance Hall, Royal College of Music London. December 2020 0:00 Scherzo 5:28 Practice tips