The Schumann’s Part 1, Married Bliss and Realities

Solomon Ge, piano

  • Clara Schumann (1819-1896) - Romance in a minor, WoO 28 (1853) (4’)
  • Robert Schumann (1810-1856) - Davidsbündlertänze (1837) (34’)
  • Lebhaft
  • Innig
  • Mit Humor
  • Ungeduldig
  • Einfach
  • Sehr rasch
  • Nicht schnell
  • Frisch
  • Lebhaft
  • Balladenmäßig - Sehr rasch
  • Einfach
  • Mit Humor
  • Wild und lustig
  • Zart und singend
  • Frisch
  • Mit gutem Humor
  • Wie aus der Ferne
  • Nicht schnell
  • Program Notes:
  • Written in 1853, Clara Schumann’s Romance in a minor is a work filled with a sense of pensive and poignant grief, likely in part due to the declining mental condition of Robert Schumann, which would soon render him institutionalized. Its melodic material consists almost entirely with gestures of sighing, which seek but often achieve no real resolution, giving the music a feeling of never fully touching the ground, and the quality of reaching for something no longer attainable. The middle of the piece shifts to Major, which is typically understood as a “happier” tonality or emotional place. While the recollective quality of the music becomes dreamier and gentler, the rhythmic shift of the inner voices to triplets still creates a subtle uneasiness, which prevents the music from ever reaching a full sense of catharsis. The return of the minor is all the more meaningful, bringing the music back to a reality one does not want to, but must contend with.
  • Robert Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze (Dances of the League of David) is a set of 18 character pieces, written immediately after his secret engagement with Clara Schumann in 1837, which itself followed a year of being unable to see her. It contains, in Robert’s own words to Clara, “many thoughts of our wedding – they originated in the most splendid state of excitement I can ever recall.” While the emotional range traversed through these pieces reaches for such extremes-peaks of ecstasy to depths of tragedy, it is imbued throughout with such a deep and personal affection that must have been overflowing in him when he thought of Clara. The piece begins with a motif from one of her own Mazurkas, and this spirit of dance remains an essential element throughout, ranging from waltzes, polkas, and Mazurkas, to dances which feel imagined and unnamed.
  • The League of David mentioned in the title refers to a musical circle which consisted of both real and imaginary characters of Schumann’s creation, which represented a group of musical pioneers advocating for new music, and fighting against the empty displays of virtuosity and what he deemed musical philistinism of his time. Foremost among these characters are Florestan and Eusebius, two of Schumann’s own imagined alter egos. Florestan represented his extroverted, impulsive and heroic side, Eusebius represented his introverted, dreamy and contemplative side and they are so deeply embedded into the imagery of the music that at the end of each piece, Schumann left the initials of the character involved. I find the duality of these two characters in the music so deeply human, in how quickly the music can shift from something passionate and explosive, to something so wondrously inward and lonely.
  • It is estimated that Clara and Robert Schumann sent upwards of 20,000 letters to each other throughout their lifetime. In many ways, I consider these two works akin to two musical letters.

Solomon Ge is a pianist and composer who has performed extensively across the United States and Europe, with orchestras such as the South Carolina Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Richardson Symphony Orchestra, as well as in collaboration with conductors such as Yaniv Dinur, Morihiko Nakahara, Clay Couturiaux, and Hugh Wolff. He has also joined the San Jose Youth Symphony Orchestra as a soloist for a concert tour of Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, which included a performance in Helsinki’s iconic Church in the Rock.

A dedicated chamber musician, he has spent three summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. A great enthusiast for music from the Second Viennese School, he gave the first Marlboro performances of song cycles by Schoenberg and Webern, alongside Chihiro Asano and Lucy Fitz-Gibbon, during his first two summers there. Other festival experiences include the Ravinia Steans Institute for Piano and Strings, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival Spring Workshop, and the IMS Prussia Cove Seminar, in which he was invited to perform works of Schubert and Schoenberg in Cornwall, UK. These formative experiences have allowed him to collaborate with artists such as Mark Steinberg, Marcy Rosen, Sara Bitlloch, Joseph Lin, and Alice Neary, as well as members of the Juilliard and Borromeo String Quartets.

Highlights of his recent performances include his Alice Tully Hall debut, in which he performed Mozart’s Concerto K. 503 with the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, a solo recital at Tannery Pond, presented by Capital Region Classical, as well as a tour with Musicians from Marlboro, in which he collaborated with Oliver Neubauer and Judith Serkin to perform Haydn Trios in concerts presented by Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Carnegie Hall, Harvard Musical Association, and the Freer Gallery of Art.

He has recorded and performed his solo piano work, Threnody, for the Pinna Records label, which he wrote as a teenager living through the hardships of the Covid pandemic, and the social isolation it brought. He dedicated all proceeds from the recording’s release to the Jed Foundation, an organization committed to supporting the mental health of teenagers and young adults.

Raised in San Jose, CA, he studied piano with Haggai Niv and Yoshikazu Nagai, composition with Pamela Quist, as well as viola with Yun Jie Liu, whose patient guidance and gorgeous tone opened his ears to the immense beauty of stringed instruments, in spite of his own lack of prowess at the viola. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Alessio Bax and Haesun Paik, and he is now pursuing a Master’s Degree at the Juilliard School, where he studies with Robert McDonald. Other important mentors and sources of endless wisdom and inspiration to him include Jonathan Biss, Claudio Martinez Mehner, and Mitsuko Uchida.

About the Dame Myra Hess Concerts

The concerts are generously sponsored by the Paul Angell Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council and by individual donors.

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