Met je muze onder één dak wonen! Dat deed Robert Schumann vanaf 1840 met zijn geliefde Clara Wieck. En met succes, want er volgden jaren van grote productiviteit. Achter elkaar componeert hij als een bezetene, soms zelfs 16 pagina’s per dag.
Programmes 
Thematic
Thematic
nieuw: Een hommage aan Robert Schumann
A laugh amidst tears
Sjostakovitsj said about Jewish folk music the following: “…very varied music, which outwardly can be cheerful but in reality is sad. Music on the verge of being a laugh amidst tears…”Schubertiade
Franz Schubert, by no means a merry-maker, characterised his life as “agony”. But what beautiful music he has written! A concert wholly devoted to two great chambermusic works by Schubert. The programme includes his first piano-trio ( D667 ) and the piano-quintet The Trout ( D667 ) for violin, viola, cello, double bass, and piano. The song Die Forelle is very well-known and recurs in the quintet. But why Schubert’s interest in a floundering little fish?The feminine note
Is there really a difference to the ear between female and male notes? Clara Schumann thought so. Women have always composed, however, their works were published to a limited degree. Not before the last few decades did this change. Pioneers like Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann didn’t have easy lives with their creative urge.Land of milk and honey
Wherever is the land of milk and honey? The land every human longs for. Does it actually exist? The place described by Charles Baudelaire as a realm where life is beautiful and rich, peaceful and honest, profuse and sweet. Is it merely an imagined land, a utopia, or does it really exist? To the parents of George Gershwin and to the composers Joseph Achron and Ernest Bloch,Masters of French music
Saint-Saen’s sparkling trio opus 18 was composed in 1863. Good- natured, fantastic music by a composer who wrote a lot more than only his Carnaval des Animeaux. A composer about whom Debussy sighed “ he should stop composing by now…”,Robert and Clara Schumann, a life-time together
As appears from letters and diary fragments of the Schumann couple Clara had a deeply felt admiration for the creative power of her husband.Roots
To many composers folk-tunes and traditional dance-music are a source of inspiration. With respect to this Haydn and Martin searched for material abroad, in Hungary and Ireland. Turina and Stuchevsky, on the other hand, went to look for their own roots,Spanish Peppers
What makes Spanish so Spanish? A big amount of temperament, a handful of flamenco chords, here and there a few irregular times, a share of colourful arabesques; and look you have come a long way. De Falla, Turina and Cassado so much loved their own folk music that, each in his own way,
Quator pour la fin du temps; visions of peace
Olvier Messiaen was a prisoner of war and composed his famous Quatuor in appallimg circumstances. It was first performed on a broken cello, a rickety piano, a violin and a clarinet for an audience of starving prisoners.An evening with Clara and Johannes
The lives of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms are interwoven by their lifelong friendship. Much is said about their relationship, but one thing is certain: Brahms was a welcome guest in the Schumann home. His music was highly valued there.O die Frauen
Robert Schumann only became 46. Despite his brief life his influence on music was great. In the work of his wife Clara and of his friends Kirchner and Brahms many traces can be found of an enormous admiration for the music of Robert Schumann.Of passion, pain and drunkenness
In this programme we hear how the Russian romantic soul forces its way out musically. How initially its melancholy, its sadness still sounds classically restrained ( Glinka ), and how next its passion sings more and more exuberantly (Arensky).A wink from your composer
“Do you know jolly music? I don’t”, is a well-known statement by Franz Schubert. Yet by no means all composers share this opinion. On the contrary, many, with a twinkling in their eyes, couldn’t resist playing a trick upon their audience.