Скачать или смотреть Schumann - Romance in F sharp major (most beautiful piano)

Robert Schumann wrote this beautiful Romance in F# major for piano (op 28. no2) in 1839 as a Christmas present for his fiancé Clara Wieck. Clara said it was the most beautiful love song ever written. They married in 1840 after having to petition the courts for permission as Clara's father refused. It is a piece that I have loved for as long as i remember and it is very moving. Listen to the 2 thumbs as they play a love duet, making for one of Schumann's most beloved pieces. Despite this being essentially a love song, struggle, pain, and searching are never far from the surface. Even in his early years Schumann had the hardest of struggles with his mental health - he suffered periods of deep depression, culminating in a suicide attempt two years before he died after admitting himself to an asylum. He was fearing he was being poisoned, hallucinating and feared he would harm his beloved Clara, he constantly heard an A sounding in his head. He died in 1856 and for the two years he was in the asylum devastatingly he was unable to see Clara.
Playing this expression of Schumann's love for Clara is so poignant, so moving and is sometimes hard to stop tears especially when you can hear the pain of his life along side the love for his Clara amongst the notes. Clara was left to raise and support their 7 surviving children. Incredibly for the time she did this with her concert pianist career.

Robert and Clara had a love theme - a sequence of descending steps which they adopted as the Clara theme from one of her compositions. Listen out for whenever the music's melody has steps downwards - the harmonies and music is always full of the most exquisite and loving moments when this happens.

Recorded on my Steinway model B with Rode NT5 mics.

Love and hugs, Louise