Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann the composer often worked in her husband’s shadow, many of her songs being mistaken for his although those best loved by the public flowed from her pen.

Some were composed and performed before their marriage, others set texts which he had suggested. “There is really nothing better than composing for oneself,” Clara noted in her diary in 1853, yet after Robert’s death three year later she composed no more, making these the fruits of mutual love all the more precious.

The accompaniment is here performed on Clara Schumann’s fortepiano.

Russian pianist Ilona Timchenko is one of the two winners of the Abstract Securities Landor Competition 2007, impressing the panel with her virtuoso technique and the stunning beauty of her playing.

The recital combines works from three closely aligned figures in German 19th Century composition, Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann and his wife Clara.

On the recording, Clara Schumann’s intricately worked 3 Preludes and Fugues opus 16 separate two of the most formidably virtuosic and acutely emotional works in the Romantic canon, Robert Schumann’s passionate and impulsive Kreisleriana opus 16, dedicated to Clara, and Brahms’ Paganini Variations Books 1 and 2.

Although a rare visitor to the UK, Ilona Timchenko, who is on a long-term contract with Landor Records, is a regular guest at many of the world’s leading concert halls, including Vienna’s Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.

Written during the years of their enforced separation and then their short lived marriage, this programme of music illustrates the musical affinity between both Clara and Robert Schumann. As a regular performer on the Gramola label, Natasa Veljkovic plays, as always, with a profound musical sensitivity and understanding of the music of this period.