Schumann (Clara) Piano trio in g minor

 Day 62

Schumann (Clara) Piano trio in g minor op 17

Alos Trio

Clara Schumann was, during much of my musical education, seen only through the prism of others. Principally this was as a muse to Schumann and Brahms, with endless speculation about the depth of her romantic relationship with the latter. But also as a teacher, with a lot of research devoted to studying the interpretations of those of her pupils who made recordings in the early part of the 20th century in an attempt to discover the secret of how to play (Robert) Schumann’s music.  Clara as a composer was rather dismissed. Indeed I don’t recall hearing any of her music for many years and even now I’ve not heard much of it - a few songs and piano pieces.

This piano trio is a sizeable work in four movements. It has all the hallmarks of somebody who had received a thorough Leipzig training and was well versed in the mid romantic style of people like Mendelssohn and of course her husband. The first three movement were highly attractive with the scherzo, placed second, particularly delightful with the inventive use of the Scotch snap rhythm. But then something happened in the last movement. It was almost as if she thought to herself that she needed to express herself in a more expansive, dare one say ‘serious’ scale. The piano writing - which hitherto had been a model of balance with the strings - started to dominate and the material became less focused, with a fair amount of rather ordinary passage work. At one point a fugue started - this seemed forced and rather out of place, and after a few bars of rather desultory counterpoint it rather petered out.

Still three out of four movements is not bad and I was glad to have head the piece. I don’t think any special pleading is necessary here - this music stands on its own two feet and any composer would have been happy to have written it. There is certainly more to her than a figure in the shadows of great men.