CLARA SCHUMANN – 3 ROMANCES OP 21 PIANO

Romance No 1. in A minor is a tragic and haunted mood; with a middle section more consolatory. This was written on a day Brahms visited Schumann in the asylum (doctors told Clara not to visit). It influenced Brahms, who performed the work, in his later pieces. Amus Level. Romance No 2 in F is an enchanting short piece or encore, based on a quotation and continuous variation of the theme of R. Schumann’s Wiegenliedchen, Op 124/6. 7th-8th. Romance No 3. in G minor is a perpetuum mobile; the constant driving 16ths become 8ths in the middle section; the first section has a feel of Chopin’s Fantasy-Impromptu, with greater chromaticism. AMus. Level – Diane M. Selmon, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.