Robert Schumann instructed the performers of his violin Sonata to do so with “Leidenschaftlichem Austdruck” (German for Passionate Expression). And right from the start, I connect with this requirement for expressiveness.
After all, the composer was in love with Clara Wieck, but her father would not allow his daughter to marry…
Schumann’s music has always moved me as a musician and a listener for as long as I can remember. Schumann’s music is the most human with its haunting, tender, and vulnerable expression. One can connect a lifetime of experiences (birth, love, regret, death) into every phrase of his music.
These experiences are tied together into one life (one phrase, one movement, one sonata) in Schumann’s music. A single phrase is like a poignant memory that returns and with each visit is reborn more vividly, more passionately, more tenderly than before.
Here is violinist Clara-Jumi Kang to perform this music for you:
