Kreisleriana, Op.16

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Sonata in D major K.576 (1789)

Allegro

Adagio

Allegretto

Leos Janácek (1854-1928)

On the overgrown path (1901-8)

1 Our evenings: moderato

2 A blown-away leaf: andante

3 Come with us: adagio

4 The Madonna of Frydek: grave

5 They chattered like swallows: con moto

6 Words fail: andante

7 Goodnight: andante

8 Unutterable anguish: andante

9 In tears: larghetto

10 The barn-owl has not flown away: andante

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Kreisleriana Op.16 (1838)

1 Äusserst bewegt

2 Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch - Intermezzo I: Sehr lebhaft - Tempo I - Intermezzo II: Etwas bewegter - Tempo I

3 Sehr aufgeregt - Etwas langsamer - Tempo I

4 Sehr langsam - Bewegter - Tempo I

5 Sehr lebhaft

6 Sehr langsam

7 Sehr rasch

8 Schnell und spielend

One side of the argument about the last of Mozart’s last piano sonata is that it is one of the six “easy” sonatas he claimed at the time to be writing for Princess Friederike of Prussia. The other side is that it is far too difficult to be any such thing. It could be, however, that both are right. The first movement certainly requires some agility in scales and arpeggios, particularly in the development section, but Mozart’s interest in counterpoint is restricted here to short two-part canons of little complexity. The slow movement differs from the first not so much in terms of technical difficulty as in the quality of the material and, crucially, the composer’s emotional involvement. Being engaged to this extent, he clearly couldn’t lapse into a non-committal finale: although the main theme of the closing Allegretto is simple enough, its treatment, as a dramatic and even virtuoso two-part invention, is not.

Janácek too had ease of execution in mind when he wrote the five earliest of the ten pieces included in On an overgrown path. Those five (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 7 and 10) were originally intended for a periodical, Slav Melodies, devoted not to the piano but the harmonium and were clearly not meant to overtax the keyboard technique of its amateur readership. Even so these reminiscence of life in his home town of Hukvaldy are not without characteristically personal reverberations. A blown-away leaf, for example, he described as “a love song” and The barn-owl has not flown away is haunted by the “ominous motif of the owl” first heard in its opening bars. Seven years later Janacek arranged the harmonium miniatures for piano and added five, rather more difficult pieces to complete the collection - including three intense expressions of the composer’s grief over the death of his daughter Olga in Words fail, Unutterable anguish, and In tears.

Janácek’s model for On an overgrown path might well have been Schumann’s anthologies of short piano pieces like the Fantasiestücke and Kinderscenen. Kreisleriana, although it too was written in the agonizingly frustrating period of Schumann’s engagement to Clara Wieck, is a very much more complicated work than either of those. Not even Clara understood it: “Sometimes your music actually frightens me,” she told him. The problem is that it is inspired by both his love for Clara and his attachment to the “wild and witty Kapellmeister” figure who appears in the Kreisleriana section E.T.A. Hoffman’s Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and then in the unfinished novel Kater Murr. Passionate reflections on Clara and no less passionate memories of Kreisler are interleaved in Schumann’s Kreisleriana in much the same way as Kreisler’s biography is interleaved with his mischievous cat’s autobiography in Hoffmann’s Kater Murr. They are satisfactorily reconciled at the end.

Gerald Larner ©2004

1 Äusserst bewegt (Extremely quick)

2 Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (Very inward and not too fast) –    Intermezzo I: Sehr lebhaft (Very lively) – Tempo I – Intermezzo II: Etwas bewegter (Somewhat quicker) – Tempo I

3 Sehr aufgeregt (Very excited) – Etwas langsamer (Somewhat slower) - Tempo I

4 Sehr langsam (Very slow) – Bewegter (Quicker) - Tempo I

5 Sehr lebhaft (Very lively)

6 Sehr langsam (Very slow)

7 Sehr rasch (Very fast)

8 Schnell und spielend (Slow and playful)

“Sometimes your music actually frightens me,” Clara Wieck told Robert Schumann as he poured out his passionate, sometimes violently frustrated piano pieces during long period of their engagement, cruelly extended as it was by the implacable opposition of her father. Kreisleriana is a work that Clara found particularly frightening and, no doubt, particularly difficult to understand. The problem is that it is inspired by both the composer’s love for Clara and his attachment to the “wild and witty Kapellmeister” figure who appears in the Kreisleriana section of E.T.A. Hoffman’s Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and then in the unfinished novel Kater Murr. Passionate reflections on Clara and no less passionate memories of Kreisler are interleaved in Schumann’s Kreisleriana in much the same way as Kreisler’s biography is interleaved with his mischievous cat’s autobiography in Hoffmann’s Kater Murr. A bewildering and yet profoundy moving tissue of contradictions, it achieves reconciliation in the Schnell und spielend last movement, a kind of scherzo with two trios.

1 Äusserst bewegt

2 Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch - Intermezzo I: Sehr lebhaft - Tempo I - Intermezzo II: Etwas bewegter - Tempo I

3 Sehr aufgeregt - Etwas langsamer - Tempo I

4 Sehr langsam - Bewegter - Tempo I

5 Sehr lebhaft

6 Sehr langsam

7 Sehr rasch

8 Schnell und spielend

Kreisleriana is an extraordinary, bewildering and yet fascinating tissue of contradictions. Schumann himself uttered ambiguous messages about it. While still working on it in 1838, he told Clara Wieck that it was all about her and his love for her. He later declared to an old teacher that it could be understood only against the background of the battles he had had with Clara’s father, who had been so bitterly opposed to their marriage. To a Belgian admirer, on the other hand, he gave the impression that it was a portrait of a favourite literary figure – Johannes Kreisler, the “wild, eccentric and clever” Kappellmeister who appeared first in the Kreisleriana section of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and who was then featured as the hero of his extravagantly constructed and unfinished novel Kater Murr.

The probability is that Kreisleriana is about both Kreisler and Clara, their stories interleaved in much the same way as Kreisler’s biography is interleaved with his mischievous cat’s autobiography in Kater Murr. That interpretation could surely be applied to the Äusserst bewegt (“extremely agitated”) first movement, where wild and eccentric outer sections surround an exquisitely lyrical middle section. The longer second movement is presented as a kind of rondo, where the gently melodious Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (“very inward and not too quick”) opening section is interleaved with two energetic and argumentative Intermezzi .

The graceful rise and fall of what one might call the Clara melodic profile is very much in evidence in the slower middle section of the basically Kreislerian Sehr aufgeregt (“very excited”) third movement. It is the one and only subject of the Sehr langsam (“very slow”) confessional that follows and which is clearly a personal declaration from Robert to Clara, who makes her reply in the quicker middle section.

From this point on there is a kind of progress towards a resolution of the two extremes. Reconciliation is definitively achieved in the Schnell und spielend (“quick and playful”) last movement, which is a kind of scherzo with two trios – the first of them devoted largely to Clara, her theme rising and falling in sonorous left-hand octaves, the second to Kreisler, represented as usual by his rhythmic vigour. In the scherzo itself, at the beginning and at the end of the movement, the two personalities are modestly merged in the two contrapuntal lines of the right-hand part over a grumbling bass line which, though persistently dislocated in rhythm, finally concedes a quiet ending.

1 Äusserst bewegt

2 Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch - Intermezzo I: Sehr lebhaft - Tempo I - Intermezzo II: Etwas bewegter - Tempo I

3 Sehr aufgeregt - Etwas langsamer - Tempo I

4 Sehr langsam - Bewegter - Tempo I

5 Sehr lebhaft

6 Sehr langsam

7 Sehr rasch

8 Schnell und spielend

Kreisleriana is an extraordinary, bewildering and yet fascinating tissue of contradictions. Schumann himself uttered ambiguous messages about it. While still working on it in 1838, he told Clara Wieck that it was all about her and his love for her. To a Belgian admirer, on the other hand, he gave the impression that it was a portrait of a favourite literary figure - Johannes Kreisler, the “wild, eccentric and clever” Kappellmeister who appeared first in the Kreisleriana section of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and who was then featured as the hero of his extravagantly constructed and unfinished novel Kater Murr.

The probability is that Kreisleriana is about both Kreisler and Clara, their stories interleaved in much the same way as Kreisler’s biography is interleaved with his mischievous cat’s autobiography in Kater Murr. That interpretation could surely be applied to the Äusserst bewegt (“extremely agitated”) first movement, where wild and eccentric outer sections surround an exquisitely lyrical middle section. The longer second movement is presented as a kind of rondo, where the gently melodious Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (“very inward and not too quick”) opening section is interleaved with two energetic and argumentative Intermezzi .

The graceful rise and fall of Clara’s melodic profile is very much in evidence in the slower middle section of the basically Kreislerian Sehr aufgeregt (“very excited”) third movement. It is the one and only subject of the Sehr langsam (“very slow”) confessional which follows and which is clearly a personal declaration from Robert to Clara, who makes her reply in the quicker middle section.

From this point on the work progresses towards a resolution of the two extremes. Reconciliation is definitively achieved in the Schnell und spielend (“quick and playful”) last movement, which is a kind of scherzo with two trios - the first of them devoted largely to Clara, her theme rising and falling in sonorous left-hand octaves, the second to Kreisler, represented as usual by his rhythmic vigour. In the scherzo itself, at the beginning and at the end of the movement, the two personalities are modestly merged in the two contrapuntal lines of the right-hand part over a grumbling bass line which, though persistently dislocated in rhythm, finally concedes a quiet ending.

1 Äusserst bewegt

2 Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch -

Intermezzo I: Sehr lebhaft - Tempo I -

Intermezzo II: Etwas bewegter - Tempo I

3 Sehr aufgeregt - Etwas langsamer - Tempo I

4 Sehr langsam - Bewegter - Tempo I

5 Sehr lebhaft

6 Sehr langsam

7 Sehr rasch

8 Schnell und spielend

Kreisleriana is an extraordinary, bewildering and yet fascinating tissue of contradictions. Schumann himself uttered ambiguous messages about it. While still working on it in 1838, he told Clara Wieck that it was all about her and his love for her. He later declared to an old teacher that it could be understood only against the background of the battles he had had with Clara’s father, who had been so bitterly opposed to their marriage. To a Belgian admirer, on the other hand, he gave the impression that it was a portrait of a favourite literary figure - Johannes Kreisler, the “wild, eccentric and clever” Kappellmeister who appeared first in the Kreisleriana section of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and who was then featured as the hero of his extravagantly constructed and unfinished novel Kater Murr.

The probability is that Kreisleriana is about both Kreisler and Clara, their stories interleaved in much the same way as Kreisler’s biography is interleaved with his mischievous cat’s autobiography in Kater Murr. That interpretation could surely be applied to the Äusserst bewegt (“extremely agitated”) first movement in D minor, where wild and eccentric outer sections - offbeat octaves in the left hand contradicting the vigorously regular rhythms in the right - surround an exquisitely lyrical middle section. The longer second movement is presented as a kind of rondo, where the gently melodious Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (“very inward and not too quick”) opening section is interleaved with two energetic and argumentative Intermezzi in the relative minor.

The graceful rise and fall of what one might call the Clara melodic profile is very much in evidence in the slower B flat major middle section of the basically Kreislerian Sehr aufgeregt (“very excited”) third movement in G minor. It is the one and only subject of the Sehr langsam (“very slow”) confessional that follows: as its resemblance to Der Dichter spricht (“The Poet Speaks”) in the Kinderszenen seems to confirm, this must be a personal declaration from Robert to Clara, who makes her reply in the quicker middle section.

From this point on there is a kind of progress towards a resolution of the two extremes. In the Sehr lebhaft (“very lively”) fifth movement the Kreisler and Clara personalities are clearly recognisable – the first by its vigorous rhythms and its canonic counterpoint, the other by its legato melodic line – but there is no change of tempo to differentiate them this time. The two are moulded together in a palindromic construction built round a climax where the bass line rises through two whole octaves in inexorable chromatic steps.

Although there have already been several indications of Schumann’s romantic attachment to J.S. Bach – a passion he shared with Hoffmann’s hero, incidentally – it is nowhere clearer than in the Sehr langsam (“very slow”) sixth piece. A quiet siciliano based on the Clara theme, it is interrupted first by a passage of characteristic fantasia figuration and later by an echo of the Grossvatertanz which appears also in the finale of Carnaval. Bach features again in the Sehr rasch (“very quick”) seventh piece, an impetuous Kreislerian inspiration which develops into a fugue at one point and which ends with a hesitant chorale variant of the Clara theme.

Reconciliation is achieved in the Schnell und spielend (“quick and playful”) last movement, which is a kind of scherzo with two trios – the first of them devoted largely to Clara, her theme rising and falling in sonorous left-hand octaves, the second to Kreisler, represented as usual by his rhythmic vigour. In the scherzo itself, at the beginning and at the end of the movement, the two personalities are modestly merged in the two contrapuntal lines of the right-hand part over a grumbling bass line which, though persistently dislocated in rhythm, finally concedes a quiet ending in G minor.

Gerald Larner ©2004

1 Äusserst bewegt

2 Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch - Intermezzo I: Sehr lebhaft - Tempo I - Intermezzo II: Etwas bewegter - Tempo I

3 Sehr aufgeregt - Etwas langsamer - Tempo I

4 Sehr langsam - Bewegter - Tempo I

5 Sehr lebhaft

6 Sehr langsam

7 Sehr rasch

8 Schnell und spielend

Schumann’s Kreisleriana is an extraordinary, bewildering and yet fascinating tissue of contradictions. Not even Clara Wieck could understand it. “I have finished another whole book of new things,” the composer wrote to her just after he had completed a first draft in April 1838. “You and one of your ideas are the principal subject, and I shall call them Kreisleriana and dedicate them to you; yes, to you, and to nobody else; and you will smile so sweetly when you see yourself in them.” In fact, she was alarmed by Kreisleriana: “Sometimes your music actually frightens me,” she told him. So she was probably not too distressed when, after the angry intervention of her father, Schumann decided to dedicate the work to “his friend F. Chopin.”

She might also have asked herself why, if she was the principal subject, the piece was called Kreisleriana. What is it really about, Kreisler or Clara? Schumann himself was ambiguous on this point. On the one hand, he declared that Kreisleriana “can be understood only against the background of the battles that Clara cost me.” On the other hand, he told a Belgian admirer that “the title conveys nothing to any but Germans. Kreisler is one of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s creations, an eccentric, wild and witty Kapellmeister. You will like much about him.” In fact, Schumann identified closely with both the author – the Hoffmann later to be celebrated by Offenbach in The Tales of Hoffmann – and his disorderly musician character, Johannes Kreisler, who appears first in the Kreisleriana section of the Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and then in the unfinished novel Kater Murr.

One possibility is that Kreisleriana is about both Kreisler and Clara, their stories interleaved in much the same way as Kreisler’s biography is interleaved with his mischievous cat’s autobiography in Hoffmann’s Kater Murr. That interpretation could surely be applied to the Äusserst bewegt (“extremely agitated”) first movement in D minor, where wild and eccentric outer sections – offbeat octaves in the left hand contradicting the vigorously regular rhythms in the right – surround an exquisitely lyrical middle section. The longer second movement is presented as a kind of rondo, where the gently melodious Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (“very inward and not too quick”) opening section is interleaved with two energetic and argumentative Intermezzi in the relative minor.

The graceful rise and fall of what one might call the Clara melodic profile is very much in evidence in the slower B flat major middle section of the basically Kreislerian Sehr aufgeregt (“very excited”) third movement in G minor. It is the one and only subject of the Sehr langsam (“very slow”) confessional that follows: as its resemblance to Der Dichter spricht (“The Poet Speaks”) in the Kinderszenen seems to confirm, this must be a personal declaration from Robert to Clara, who makes her reply in the quicker middle section.

From this point on there is a kind of progress towards a resolution of the two extremes. In the Sehr lebhaft (“very lively”) fifth movement the Kreisler and Clara personalities are clearly recognisable – the first by its vigorous rhythms and its canonic counterpoint, the other by its legato melodic line – but there is no change of tempo to differentiate them this time. The two are moulded together in a palindromic construction built round a climax where the bass line rises through two whole octaves in inexorable chromatic steps.

Although there have already been several indications of Schumann’s romantic attachment to J.S. Bach – a passion he shared with Hoffmann’s hero, incidentally – it is nowhere clearer than in the Sehr langsam (“very slow”) sixth piece. A quiet siciliano based on the Clara theme, it is interrupted first by a passage of characteristic fantasia figuration and later by an echo of the Grossvatertanz which appears also in the finale of Carnaval. Bach features again in the Sehr rasch (“very quick”) seventh piece, an impetuous Kreislerian inspiration which develops into a fugue at one point and which ends with a hesitant chorale variant of the Clara theme.

Reconciliation is achieved in the Schnell und spielend (“quick and playful”) last movement, which is a kind of scherzo with two trios – the first of them devoted largely to Clara, her theme rising and falling in sonorous left-hand octaves, the second to Kreisler, represented as usual by his rhythmic vigour. In the scherzo itself, at the beginning and at the end of the movement, the two personalities are modestly merged in the two contrapuntal lines of the right-hand part over a grumbling bass line which, though persistently dislocated in rhythm, finally concedes a quiet ending in G minor.