Andante and Variations in B flat Op.46 (1843)

By far the larger part of the two-piano repertoire consists of arrangements of music originally intended for something else. The ratio in this programme, where only En blanc et noir was conceived for two pianos while the other three items were not, is probably representative of the situation at large. It is true that Schumann’s Andante and Variations was first published for two pianos but it was originally written for a larger ensemble – the highly unlikely combination of two pianos, two cellos and horn. Sadly, when it was tried out in that form in Leipzig in 1843 – with Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann and three instrumentalists from, presumably, the Gewandhaus – “it did not,” the composer observed, “go particularly well.” On Mendelssohn’s advice, Schumann rescored the variations for two pianos, only to have to witness a first performance in which, according to Clara, the audience “somewhat lost its musical frame of mind and composure because of a fire alarm.”

Comparison of the present score with the (actually superior) original version – which was first published in 1896 and which is now readily available on CD – shows that Schumann simply left out the cello and horn parts, cutting those episodes where he couldn’t dispense with them. They include a particularly fascinating transition between the fifth and sixth variations which quotes from Frauenliebe und -Leben.

So there is a reason why the Andante and Variations is not the best example of scoring for two pianos. In fact, there is so little authentic interchange between the two insturments that Brahms enjoyed playing it as a solo. It is no less attractive for its textural shortcomings, however, not least because of the expressive line and poignant harmonies of the theme itself. “I think I was rather melancholy when I composed it,” Schuman explained. Since, with the exception of the melodious third, the early variations proceed by way of more or less brisk groups of semiquavers, the melancholy inspiration of the work is not conspicuous until the fifth, a funeral march in B flat minor (which in the original version sounds rather less like the slow movement of Chopin’s Piano Sonata in that key). The original theme is recalled before the semiquaver figuration is restored in the next variation and recalled again, after three more brisk variations, just before the end. A short coda of double arabesques of semiquavers in contrary motion secures a not too melancholy ending.