Adagio And Rondo In D Viola

[Lirim Collard]

Musicians or Publisher's Notes

"All the instruments arehaving a turn," wrote Clara Schumann in 1849, when her husband composed aseries of miniatures for clarinet, horn, oboe and cello, each with pianoaccompaniment. The Adagio and Allegro was among the initial experiments of thiskind. Though often played on otherinstruments (here on viola), it was expressly composed for the newly developedvalve horn. The Adagio bears an eloquent description, "with inner expression" andits original title was Romanze. Viacheslav DinerchteinAdagio and Allegro for Viola and Piano, Op. 70 Robert SchumannThough Robert Schumann's initial output as a composer waswholly dominated by solo piano works, he eventually expanded into other genres,taking on the mantle of leading German symphonist from Beethoven, composing amyriad of songs as well as a multitude of chamber works. A child of his ownage, Schumann was, in essence, an experimenter. Already having shown awillingness to break with traditional Classical forms in his early piano works,he went so far as to write works for the recently invented valve-horn thatbegan appearing in orchestra in the 1830s. Though some composers, even as lateas Brahms, still preferred the traditional natural horn because of its bettertone quality, the valve-horn found an ardent supporter in Schumann who perhapswas looking more to the future possibilities of the instrument rather than whatwas readily available.

The Adagio recalls to mind many of Schumann's ownsongs and requires great stamina and control to give proper utterance to itslengthy, lyrical lines. For the most part, the horn dominates the section withthe piano effortlessly picking up and imitating the horn's melodic lines duringits brief pauses. The Allegro is cast in a rondo form with a vigorousfirst theme utilizing the full range of the horn. This theme alternates withmore lyrical episodes based, in part, on the opening Adagio.

Along with its original scoring for horn and piano, Schumannalso published transcriptions of the work with a viola or cello replacing thesolo horn. However, it was the horn version that achieved the most success andwould prompt Schumann to compose the Konzertstcke for four horns laterin the year. Joseph DuBose

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