Two Romantic Duos II

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“Piano Trio in G Minor Op. 17”

“Piano Trio No. 2 in D Minor”

Additional notes

Clara Schumann (1819 – 1896)

Clara Schumann was born in Leipzig to a musical family. Both her parents, Friedrich and Mariane Wieck, were both piano teachers, her mother also a singer. As expected, she had piano lessons from a very young age and was soon recognized as a child prodigy, making her debut at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on the 28th October, 1828 when she was only nine years old. Two years later she began touring Europe and was especially successful in Vienna, Paris and other cities.
It was during one of her performances in Leipzig that she met Robert Schumann, who was so impressed with her playing that he decided to stop studying law and begin music lessons with Clara’s father, Friedrich. Years later they married, despite his strong opposition, and began, also, a musical collaboration. Clara premiered many of his works, from solo piano pieces to the arrangements she made of his orchestral works. In addition of her concerts, she was a piano teacher and composed regularly. She was the main breadwinner of her family and became the only one after the tragic mental collapse of her husband in 1854 and his passing two years later.
Robert and Clara Schumann supported young musicians like Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim, with whom Clara would keep a strong friendship and musical relationship, premiering many of Brahm’s works and playing over 230 concerts with Joachim.
Although Clara was not widely recognized as a composer until many years after her death, she had a lasting effect as a pianist. She was one of the first pianists to perform from memory, making it standard practice for concerts. She influenced many pianists through her teaching, which emphasized expression and a singing tone, with technique subordinated to the intentions of the composer. She was responsible in great measure for seeing the works of Robert Schumann recognized, appreciated and added to the repertoire, promoting his works tirelessly throughout her life.
Clara Schumann suffered a stroke on the 26th March 1896 and died on the 20th May at the age of 76.

Rosalind Frances Ellicott (1857 – 1924)

Rosalind Frances Ellicott (1857 – 1924) was born in Cambridge to Charles and Constantia Annie Ellicott. Her mother was an amateur singer and she introduced young Rosalind to the world of music, encouraging and supporting her. By the age of six, she already exhibited an extraordinary facility in music, singing and harmonising correctly by ear. From the age of twelve, she took lessons with Samuel Sebastian Wesley, an organist and composer, and started composing just one year later. In 1874, she was accepted at the Royal Academy of Music to study piano with Frederick Westlake. During that time, she also sang soprano solo parts in oratorios and cantatas and was a frequent soloist at the Three Choirs Festival.
It was in 1885, when she commenced studying composition with Thomas Wingham of the Brompton Oratory, that she began to produce many more works. She found success at the Gloucester Festival with the orchestral Dramatic Overture and with the lyrical cantata Elysium, composed in 1886 and 1889, respectively. Both pieces were very well received by the public and were subsequently performed in Bristol, Cheltenham, Oxford, London, Dresden and Chicago.
Despite her relative success in the last two decades of the century both as composer and performer, by the beginning of the twentieth century she began disappearing from the public eye. After the First World War, she moved to the coast near Canterbury and died in Seasalter in 1924. Sadly, just a small amount of her output has survived to this day.