CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Pianist Ian Hobson will perform the complete solo piano works of Robert Schumann in 10 recitals, beginning Monday (Sept. 12).
Hobson, a University of Illinois professor in the Center for Advanced Study and the Swanlund Professor of music, recorded the complete works of Chopin, a contemporary of Schumann, for Zephyr Records.
“Schumann and Chopin were the two greatest romantic composers for piano, but they were very, very different,” Hobson says. “Schumann was more introverted. There was not so much professional polish to his work. It’s much more inner feelings based on literature and on his own psychological makeup.
“His imagination was incredibly rich – eventually he went insane – but there’s something deeply human about his music.”
Mastering the music wasn’t the only challenge for Hobson; he also had to organize the compositions into a logical set of recitals.
“It took me quite a long time to think about how to do that,” Hobson said. “With Chopin, I did it chronologically, more or less, but with Schumann not at all. I decided to go with groupings and titles that suggested themselves to me.”
The first recital, “Themes and Variations,” comprises every piano piece Schumann wrote that fit that form – including his first composition (“Variations on the name ‘Abegg,’ Op. 1, published in 1830) and his last (“Theme With Variations in E Flat Major,” published only a few years ago). Schumann wrote the latter while residing in an asylum; they’re often called “Ghost Variations” because Schumann claimed an angel dictated the theme to him.
Hobson’s second recital in the series, Sept. 26, features all of Schumann’s piano sonatas. The third recital, Oct. 10, is called “Carnival Jests,” and includes the well-known “Faschingsschwank aus Wien,” or Carnival Jests from Vienna, and “Carnaval.” In “Faschingsschwank,” Schumann included an excerpt from “La Marseillaise,” the national anthem of France, at a time when it was illegal to play it in Germany. In “Carnaval,” Schumann wrote a march depicting a confrontation between the Davidsbundler (his imaginary band of brothers) and the Philistines. However, he wrote this “march” in waltz time.
“He was a very amusing, complicated character,” Hobson said.
The other recitals in the series:
- “Love Letters,” Oct. 24, including “Novelletten”
- “Bachian Inventions,” Nov. 14, including “Kreisleriana”
- “Fantasies,” Jan. 23, 2012, including “Fantasy in C major, Op. 17”
- “Scenes of Childhood,” Feb. 20, including “Album for the Young”
- “Florestan and Eusebius,” March 12, including “Davidsbundlertanze”
- “Prophetic Visions,” April 2, including “Humoreske in B-flat major”
- “Last Reflections,” April 23, including “Gesange der Fruhe”
In addition to pieces that fit the themes of the recitals, they also will include one or two sets of etudes.
Preparation for these recitals has given Hobson a chance to immerse himself in the repertoire, and he has been finding bits of other composers evident throughout Schumann’s works.
“He does little things like quoting from the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, quoting from (Beethoven’s) ‘Pastoral Symphony.’ These are little inside jokes, which were really a hallmark of Schumann,” Hobson said. “You see this all the time with Schumann – subtle things, little messages in bottles, which you’d never think that anybody would discover.”
Hobson even stumbled across one quote from a Brahms symphony, buried in Schumann’s Allegro, Op. 8. But the Schumann Allegro predates Brahms’ birth. “Obviously, Brahms is the one who stole that one,” Hobson said.
Hobson plans to record all the Schumann pieces, as he did with the Chopin works, but he doesn’t plan to give another composer this same treatment.
“Chopin and Schumann are the only composers who inspire me to investigate all their music,” Hobson said. “I learn a lot from seeing the totality of their work.”
Hobson has made about 40 recordings as a solo artist, and has performed with major orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. He is also a jurist for international piano competitions.
This series of recitals will be performed at 7:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall of Smith Memorial Hall, 805 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana. Tickets are $5 for students and youth ($35 for the entire series) and $10 for adults ($70 for the series). For more information, contact Sinfonia da Camera at 217-244-4350 or sinfonia@illinois.edu.
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