Brahms-Schumann Circle: Performance Practice and Style

ResearchWorks - Guildhall School of Music & Drama

An exploration of performance practice in the Brahms-Schumann circle by three Guildhall School researchers

Lecture Recital Room, Guildhall School of Music & Drama

This session brings together three Guildhall School researchers who have focused on the performance practice of members of the Brahms-Schumann circle. Each will give a brief introduction to their individual research, including work on three editions for Bärenreiter: Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor op. 38 (Kate Bennett Wadsworth), Clara Schumann’s Romances op. 23 (Jacqueline Ross) and her Piano Trio in G minor op. 17 (Laura Roberts). They will then focus on issues of performance practice more deeply in relation to Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio. When Clara met Joseph Joachim in 1853 they found an immediate musical connection, since both had previously worked closely with Mendelssohn in Leipzig. The style of writing in Clara’s Piano Trio, though written in Dresden in 1846, is most closely aligned to this earlier Mendelssohn-Schumann circle. However, Joachim had also spent a few years as Liszt’s Konzertmeister in Weimar, and this experience had developed greater artistic breadth in his playing, just as in the 1830s the influence of Chopin had significantly enriched Clara Schumann’s pianism. As the Brahms-Schumann circle came together in the 1850s Robert and Clara were famously overwhelmed by Brahms’ talent as both composer and pianist, and he brought many new ideas in performance practice. Their music making was much enriched by this diversity of experience and approach as well as by their shared artistic values and vision. Through demonstration, discussion and a performance of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, this session offers both a detailed analysis of performance style relevant to this piece specifically and a wider exploration of playing within the Brahms-Schumann circle. Speakers: Professor Laura Roberts (Guildhall School of Music &amp; Drama)Laura Roberts is a professor of piano at the Guildhall School of Music &amp; Drama and has performed as soloist, chamber musician and vocal accompanist, appearing at St. John’s Smith Square, St. George’s Brandon Hill, LSO St Luke’s, the Red House Aldeburgh, Conway Hall, at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court and in the Cobbe Keyboard Collection concert series at Hatchlands. She recently edited Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio for Bärenreiter and is currently working on a book about Clara Schumann for Routledge. She has given lecture performances in the UK and abroad and has regularly contributed to study days at Wigmore Hall in collaboration with the composer Julian Philips. She performed in a BBC workshop featuring the music of neglected female composers and in an LSO Discovery Day as well as in a dramatisation of Tippett’s life at the Aldeburgh Festival. She studied with Imogen Cooper and in masterclasses with Andras Schiff, Richard Goode and Vlado Perlemuter.Dr. Kate Bennett Wadsworth (Guildhall School of Music &amp; Drama)Kate Bennett Wadsworth is a cellist and gambist devoted to historical performance of all periods, with a special research interest in 19th-century performing practice. In collaboration with Clive Brown and Neal Peres da Costa, she has prepared annotated editions of the Brahms Cello Sonatas and co-authored Performance Practices in Johannes Brahms’ Chamber Music, published by Bärenreiter in 2015. Her recording of the Brahms Cello Sonatas with historical pianist Yi-heng Yang, released on the Deux-Elles label in 2018, has been praised for its “narrative quality” (Gramophone) and its “ardor and depth” (Early Music America). Kate studied modern cello with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory, baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden at the Royal Dutch Conservatory in The Hague, and 19th-century performance practice with Clive Brown at the University of Leeds, after completing a bachelor’s degree in Scandinavian studies at Harvard University. She is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Professor Jacqueline Ross (Guildhall School of Music &amp; Drama)Jacqueline Ross enjoys a varied career performing on modern and period instruments. Her solo recordings include the Sonatas and Partitas of JS Bach, and the Complete Works for Violin and Fortepiano by Schubert, which were recorded for Naxos.Jacqueline is regularly invited to give masterclasses internationally, which include Curtis Institute, the Juilliard School, Salzburg Mozarteum, Paris Conservatoire, and Beijing Central Conservatory. She has adjudicated on major violin competitions, including the Menuhin, Leopold Mozart, and Louis Spohr, and the Beethoven in his Time competition on historical instruments. Her research into style and performance has been supported by the Dutch Arts and Humanities Research Board, The British Council, and the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange.She was awarded an AHRC Visiting Fellowship based at Cambridge University, to further her research on 19th century performance practice, and to prepare a performing edition of Schubert’s Trockne Blumen Variations. She has recently prepared a critical and performing edition of Clara Schumann’s Drei Romanzen op. 22 for Bärenreiter, published in March 2021.Jacqueline performs on a GB Guadagnini violin, financed for her with kind help from NW Brown.What is ResearchWorks?The Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the school and its guests with students, staff and the public.Guildhall School of Music &amp; Drama Privacy PolicyOnce you have registered, the Guildhall School will handle your data in accordance with its privacy policy and Enterprise, Knowledge Exchange and Research Events privacy notice.

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