Robert Schumann - Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13 + Appendix (1834) {Duchâble}

Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 - 29 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
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Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13 (1834) 2nd version
Dedication: William Sterndale Bennett
Theme - Andante (0:00)
Etude I (Variation 1) - Un poco più vivo (1:26)
Etude II (Variation 2) - Andante (2:37)
Etude III - Vivace (5:56)
Etude IV (Variation 3) - Allegro marcato (7:10)
Etude V (Variation 4) - Scherzando (8:05)
Etude VI (Variation 5) - Agitato (9:13)
Etude VII (Variation 6) - Allegro molto (10:11)
Etude VIII (Variation 7) - Sempre marcatissimo (11:21)
Etude IX - Presto possibile (13:37)
Etude X (Variation 8) - Allegro con energia (14:13)
Etude XI (Variation 9) - Andante espressivo (15:29)
Etude XII (Finale) - Allegro brillante (based on Marschner's theme) (18:20)
Symphonic Etudes, HK WoO 6, Appendix to Op. 13 (1834)
Variations on a theme by Baron von Fricken
Thema - Andante (24:41)
Variation I - Andante, Tempo del tema (26:10)
Variation II - Meno mosso (27:41)
Variation III - Allegro (29:59)
Variation IV - Allegretto (31:14)
Variation V - Moderato (34:35)
François-René Duchâble, piano
The first edition in 1837 carried an annotation that the tune was "the composition of an amateur": this referred to the origin of the theme, which had been sent to Schumann by Baron von Fricken, guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella of his Carnaval Op. 9. The baron, an amateur musician, had used the melody in a Theme with Variations for flute. Schumann had been engaged to Ernestine in 1834, only to break abruptly with her the year after. An autobiographical element is thus interwoven in the genesis of the Études symphoniques (as in that of many other works of Schumann's).
Of the sixteen variations Schumann composed on Fricken's theme, only eleven were published by him. (An early version, completed between 1834 and January 1835, contained twelve movements). The final, twelfth, published étude was a variation on the theme from the Romance Du stolzes England freue dich (Proud England, rejoice!), from Heinrich Marschner's opera Der Templer und die Jüdin, which was based on Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (as a tribute to Schumann's English friend, William Sterndale Bennett). The earlier Fricken theme occasionally appears briefly during this étude. The work was first published in 1837 as XII Études Symphoniques. Only nine of the twelve études were specifically designated as variations.
If etudes Nos. 3 and 9 are excluded, where the connection with the theme is tenuous, the etudes are in variation form. It was not the first time that Schumann had tackled variation form. But here the variation principle is used more as free transformation, no longer of an actual theme, but of a musical 'cell' or cells (as for example in the same composer's Carnaval). The Études symphoniques learn the lesson of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations: the theme that acts as a unifying element is amplified and transformed, and becomes the basis from which blossom inventions of divergent expressive character. The work also shows the influence of the Goldberg Variations, most obviously in the use of a pseudo-French overture variation, and in the use of various canonic effects.
The highly virtuosic demands of the piano writing are frequently aimed not merely at effect but at clarification of the polyphonic complexity and at delving more deeply into keyboard experimentation. The Etudes are considered to be one of the most difficult works for piano by Schumann (together with his Fantasy in C and Toccata) and in Romantic literature as a whole.
In 1861, five years after Schumann's death, his father-in-law Friedrich Wieck published a third edition under the editorial pseudonym "DAS" (an acronym for Der alte Schulmeister). This edition attempted to reconcile the differences between the earlier two, and bore both the previous titles XII Études Symphoniques and Études en forme de variations.
On republishing the set in 1890, Johannes Brahms restored the five variations that had been cut by Schumann. These are now often played, but in positions within the cycle that vary somewhat with each performance; there are now twelve variations and these five so-called "posthumous" variations which exist as a supplement.

[@joshscores3360]

Variation V in the appendix was going to be the trio section for Etude X of the main set.

[@angelosilva4051]

Schumann strepitoso e molto complesso.Grandissimo genio.Ottima esecuzione.

[@fransmeersman2334]

Thank you very much for this magnificent performance of this version by François-René Duchâble of my favorite work of Schumann.

[@pianoman1857]

Wow splendid version

[@elmiramuradova561]

Thank you so much. Breathtaking in the morning❤

[@AlbertoSegovia.]

Interesting metronome numbers. Thank you for your work!

[@CaradhrasAiguo49]

showing them illustrates that the metronome marking is almost always ignored for the "French overture" Etude VIII / Variation 7 (too slow) or for the following etude (far too fast)

[@foolim1]

Should someone with a hand that cannot reach 10th degrees not play this piece?

[@zanexiao4488]

get ready to arpeggio boy

[@nikb6176]

Duchable is one of the finest living pianists, such a shame he became so disenfranchised with performing