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MP3 Kevin Class - Schumann
22 MP3 Songs in this album (61:07) !
Related styles: CLASSICAL: Piano solo, CLASSICAL: Romantic Era
Details:
Well, here it is! A handful of very devoted people have
been waiting for this recording to be issued in some
manner, but I''m not sure this is ever what they quite
envisioned. The now infamous "Schumann Album" has
been sitting on the shelf and only circulating in bits and
pieces for the past 7 years as I have constantly thought
and rethought what, if anything, should be done with it.
I recorded these pieces during two days of recording at the
newly renovated Helen Hosmer Hall at the Crane School
of Music (SUNY-Potsdam) in December 2000, just a few
weeks before taking up the baton as Resident Conductor
of the Opera Program at the University of Illinois. In
October of 2000 I had played what I personally referred
to as my ''farewell tour'' (that''s right, it is my flare for the
dramatic that actually makes me quite effective conducting
opera! https://www.tradebit.com course, it wasn''t much of a farewell tour
since no one noticed I was gone! HA!!), in a series of
concerts that included Schumann''s Nachtstucke and the
first volume of Liszt''s Annees de Pelerinage. In early
December, I recorded the Nachtstucke, along with
Faschingsschwank aus Wien and Kinderszenen, with the
intention of marking my ''departure'' from solo playing
with some recordings of works that had some meaning, or
at least history, to me.
Since my young childhood, I have always been attracted
to literature that was, perhaps, not the most standard or
widely embraced. I was a teenager when I first discovered
Nachtstucke myself, and I''ve always thought the work, if
handled appropriately, can be quite effective. It requires a
certain knowledge of style of Schumann, and a bravery to
realize that tempo-unity is pedantic and amateurish and
simply does not work in many of his compositions.
Nachtstucke is senseless if one has not figured this out.
But, more important, there was a poetic imagery that I connected with in the writings of Schumann about this work in
particular.
Faschingsschwank is far from obscure, of course, but it is hardly on the ''hits list'' that includes Carneval and
Kreisleriana. I think Perahia''s "Aldeburgh" recording helped to bring this work into a lot of student''s repertoire in the
''90s. I simply found it to be a powerful contrast to the Nachtstucke, and a work that provides an enticing foil to the
aims of Nacht and Kinderszenen. Kinderszenen simply is what it is: a poignant reflection on childhood from the
perspective of an old poet. What could that mean to me? When you''re a kid who has confronted mortality on an
extensive and even brutal level...well, you grow up quickly with at least some sort of perspective. That''s all the story I
need to tell, Kinderszenen simply gave me a vehicle.
I was fairly pleased with the performance (although, as is always the case, I wouldn''t have minded another take or two
in a couple passages). I knew I was in trouble when I arrived for the first editing session and sat for more than half an
hour while the ''engineer'' struggled with, what I knew from experience to be, a very simple and basic edit. Come to
realize that he and his ''company'' had completely misrepresented their capabilities. I simply asked for the rough takes
with the intention of taking them elsewhere for final assembly and post-production. What I found was a complete
mess of material: digital glitches, inconsistent balance from take to take, fader throttle during takes (got to love that
near fade-out, during what was actually a crescendo, at the end of the third movement of Nachtstucke!), ends of takes
clipped off too early, etc. etc.. Once I did run the takes past a professional recording engineer, he just turned to me
and said "Sue them!" Ah, not the words I wanted to hear since my ''abandonment'' of concert giving was largely
precipitated by several years of aggravating lawsuits with record companies. I was just too tired to care at that point.
So, for the sake of having something to give my mother for Christmas that year, we managed to at least edit the thing
together into a coherent package, even if the sound quality was a mess and it was pieced together only from a portion
of the material that was salvageable from incompetent engineering. This Frankenstein-like assemblage is what became
"the Schumann album." ("It''s alive, ALIVE!!!)
The question has repeatedly been posed: "Why not just re-record the album?" I suppose it has never been ruled out.
But when I left Postdam that December, I also left a consistent and thorough contact with the piano. In January 2001 I
began life anew as a conductor, immersed in opera and contending with a whole new package of opportunities and
frustrations. Now, I NEVER abandoned the piano, nor had any intention of it, but for the past several years I have not
had opportunities to maintain a consistent enough contact with the piano, or to work pianistically under conditions
that would allow me to prepare to record up to my standard. So, the very idea of re-recording this album has never
been anything but a thorn in my side. Again, I''m not going to say ''never'', but at this point it just feels easier to put this
engineering nightmare of a record out here and let it be what it is. I would like to think there is something enjoyable in
it as I believe the works themselves transcend the recording complications. That''s my hope anyway!
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