1845: Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, age 35

Mr. Peabody Says:

The Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor was an immediate success and has been famous for 174 years. It was the first of three concertos written in A major or A minor by Schumann, Liszt and Grieg. The Schumann and Grieg concertos are often paired. On records each concerto fitted conveniently on each side. This is how I initially heard both.

Martha Argerich & Riccardo Chailly

1. Allegro affettuoso (A minor): Fast, with tenderness
2. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (F major)
3. Allegro vivace (A major): fast and lively

Martin Helmchen ∙ Klaus Mäkelä

1. Allegro affettuoso (A minor): Fast, with tenderness
2. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (F major)
3. Allegro vivace (A major): fast and lively

Instrumentation:

• solo piano
• 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons
• 2 horns, 2 trumpets
• timpani
• strings

First movement:

• I. Allegro affettuoso (A minor): It’s sonata form, and the short intro is an idea that Grieg later copied, along with the key.
• Cadenza: It’s one of the most effective and well written cadenzas in all of piano literature.

Second movement:

• II. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (F major): A minor’s relative major is C major. F major is a double morph and actually a more subtle choice. The keys of C, A and E are all related by morphs.
• He starts moving back to A minor here: He is in F, and first he goes to Bb7, as a IV chord. Now he slides to E7, to Eb7, D7, Db7, C7 to F7 to E7. That sets him up to go to either A or Am.

Last movement:

• III. Allegro vivace (A major): Is it major or minor? At first you don’t know. It’s major, then minor, then finally back to major. There is no break, something that Schumann and other composers often did.

This is Schumann’s only piano concerto…

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, by the German Romantic composer Robert Schumann was completed in 1845 and is the composer’s only piano concerto. The complete work was premiered in Dresden on December 4th of 1845. It is one of the most widely performed and recorded piano concertos from the Romantic period.

It took a long time…

Schumann talked about his ideas with his future wife, Clara, when he was still in his teens. To get from that point to completion took almost a decade. Once again we can see how long it took for these geniuses to complete major works. The process is not usually quick.

It started out with a different name and form…

In his early 20s Schumann wrote a fantasy for piano and orchestra called Phantasie in A minor. He could not sell it to publishers. Later he revised it, but it still was not a success. Clara suggested that he expand it to a full concerto. In December of 1845 it was performed by his wife.

Then Mendelssohn conducted it…

Less than a month later on January 1st, 1846, the concerto was performed in Leipzig, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn and again with Clara performing. This is a good example of how composers supported each other.

Great balance between orchestra and piano…

This is what the concertos by Schumann, Liszt and Grieg have in common. In all three the orchestra and piano complement each other.

Did Grieg copy Schumann?

Many people think Grieg modeled his concerto on Schumann’s, also in A minor. Grieg’s concerto, like Schumann’s, opens with short introduction by the piano, followed by the first theme played in the orchestra. Rachmaninoff also used Grieg’s concerto as a model for his first Piano Concerto.

No break between movement one and two…

At the end of movement two it says: attacca subito. This means to attack suddenly. Originally there were only two movements: