The Whole Music Experience

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Staier and Sepec Robert Schumann Sonatas for Piano and Violin Harmonia Mundi From around the time of German composer Robert Schumann’s death in 1856 (and in his last years), to the 1960s, Schumann’s later works were considered inferior to his other works. After listening to Andreas Staier’s (forte piano) and Daniel Sepec’s (1780 violin) recording of Schumann’s later sonatas, I wonder about the brilliance of Schumann’s work prior to the 1850s. The music that flows off of Robert Schumann Sonatas for Piano and Violin sounds brilliant with marvelous sonorities coming from both instruments. Passages explode off of the disc—impassioned, blazing, while alternating with lyrical poetry. Schumann’s homage to JS Bach feels both endearing and clearheaded. So any nonsense about Schumann’s plight with depression and madness curbing his virtuosity rightfully should be discounted and ignored. On this recording, Staier dusts off an Erard forte piano (1837, Pari...