Undergraduate Ensemble Examination Concert Event
- Time:
- 13:00 - 13:50
- Date:
- 25 May 2012
- Venue:
- Turner Sims University of Southampton Highfield SO17 1BJ
For more information regarding this event, please telephone Louise Johnson on 023 8059 8424 or email L.L.Johnson@soton.ac.uk .
Event details
Student ensembles from the University of Southampton Music Department perform their final recitals of the year, examined as part of their undergraduate studies. Admission is free and open to the public.
Piano Duet
Stacey Barnett & Amy Jefferies, piano
***
Lauren Else, soprano
Giles Nash, piano
Robert Schumann: Frauenliebe und –Leben (“Woman’s Love and Life”) [Song cycle]
Frauenliebe und –Leben (1840) is a song cycle composed at a significant time in Schumann’s life. He had been courting Clara Wieck for some time, and a legal battle ensued when Schumann had failed to get her father’s permission. Eventually, Schumann married Clara shortly before her twenty-first birthday.
The poem to which the music is set, written by Adelbert von Chamisso, is a tender narrative describing the course of a woman’s love, from first meeting, through marriage, and to death. The work is a pinnacle of Schumann’s output, displaying a fine balance between emotion, harmony, vocal expression and pianistic support. Schumann’s song cycle allows the piano to speak, with an independence from the vocal part. This allows Schumann the room to melt the two parts (the vocal line and the piano part) together, creating a convincing and deeper understanding of Chamisso’s text.