Composed 1849; 11 minutes

Now, here’s a surprise to open Part Two of this all-Schumann concert. After Clara Schumann received these newly written Three Romances from her husband as a Christmas gift in 1849, she gave them a run through two days later in their Dresden home with Franz Schubert. But Schubert died an early death in 1828, you may be thinking—and you’d be correct, November 19 to be precise. Violinist Franz Schubert (1808-78), however, was concertmaster of the Dresden court orchestra and a family friend. He, too, was a composer... though of more modest accomplishments. 

Robert Schumann composed the Romances December 7, 11, and 12, 1849—that ‘most fruitful’ year for chamber music, as he put it. In them he aimed to explore the distinctive sound qualities of a then neglected instrument—the oboe. Clara had been begging Schumann to write music that had wide appeal, and chamber music appropriate for either the concert platform, the salon, or the home was one of Schumann’s solutions. Clara realized right away that the generously lyrical Romances—each one virtually a song without words—would also fit the timbre and sonority of the violin. Schumann’s publisher went even further and added an alternative clarinet part to the mix when the work was first published early in 1851. Clara stuck with an alternative violin part when she oversaw the first complete edition of her late husband’s works beginning in 1878. 

Schumann’s lyrical writing is at its finest in these three Romances. The first ebbs and flows around a tender, plaintive melody, which continues to expand and evolve throughout in a quietly subtle manner, without the customary contrasting middle section. There is, however, a suggestion of a brief scherzando moment well into the movement. The second Romance, in the major key, is even more relaxed, though with an urgent middle section. The finale is more subtle and elusive still, as animated rhythms and sudden surges of energy give the music a restless, almost improvisatory character before a more reflective close. It is a character piece with many faces.