Robert Schumann Carnaval -- Myra Hess 1938, complete

Carnaval, Op. 9, is a work by Robert Schumann for piano solo, written in 1834-1835, and subtitled Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes (Little Scenes on Four Notes). It consists of a collection of short pieces representing masked revelers at Carnival, a festival before Lent. Schumann gives musical expression to himself, his friends and colleagues, and characters from improvised Italian comedy (commedia dell'arte).

For Schumann the four notes were encoded puzzles, and he predicted that "deciphering my masked ball will be a real game for you." The 21 pieces are connected by a recurring motif. In each section of Carnaval there appears either or both of two series of musical notes. These are musical cryptograms, as follows:
A, E-flat, C, B - signified in German as A-S-C-H
A-flat, C, B - signified in German as As-C-H
E-flat, C, B, A - signified in German as S-C-H-A.

The first two spell the German name for the town of Asch (this is now Aš in the Czech Republic), in which Schumann's then fiancée, Ernestine von Fricken, was born as well as representing the German word Fasching or carnival. Asch is also German for "Ash," as in Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It also encodes a version of the composer's name, Robert Alexander Schumann. The grouping S-C-H-A encodes the composer's name again with the musical letters appearing in Schumann, in their correct order.

Carnaval had its origin in a set of variations on a Sehnsuchtswalzer by Franz Schubert, whose music Schumann had only discovered in 1827. The catalyst for writing the variations may have been a work for piano and orchestra in the form of variations on the same Schubert theme, by Schumann's close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Schumann felt that Schuncke's heroic treatment was an inappropriate reflection of the tender nature of the Schubert piece, so he set out to approach his Variations in a more intimate way. He worked on his variations in 1833 and 1834. The work was never completed, however, and Schuncke died in December 1834, but Schumann did re-use the opening 24 measures for the opening of Carnaval. Andreas Boyde has since reconstructed the original set of Variations from Schumann's manuscript.

In Carnaval, Schumann goes further musically than in Papillons, Op. 2, for in it he himself conceives the story of which it was the musical illustration. Each piece has a title, and the work as a whole is a musical representation of an elaborate and imaginative masked ball during carnival season. Carnaval remains famous for its resplendent chordal passages and its use of rhythmic displacement, and has long been a staple of the pianist's repertoire.

Schumann dedicated the work to the violinist Karol Lipiński.

Both Schumann and his wife, Clara, considered his solo piano works too difficult for the general public. Frédéric Chopin is reported to have said that Carnaval was not music at all. Consequently, the works for solo piano were rarely performed in public during Schumann's lifetime, although Franz Liszt performed selections from Carnaval in Leipzig in 1840. However, today, despite its immense technical and emotional difficulty, it is one of Schumann's most often performed works.
(Source: Wikipedia)
1. Préambule (A♭ major)
2. Pierrot (E♭ major)
3. Arlequin (B♭ major)
4. Valse noble (B♭ major)
5. Eusebius (E♭ major)
6. Florestan (G minor)
7. Coquette (B♭ major)
8. Réplique (B♭ major)
9. Papillons (B♭ major)
10. Lettres dansantes (E♭ major)
11. Chiarina (C minor)
12. Chopin (A♭ major)
13. Estrella (F minor)
14. Reconnaissance (A♭ major)
15. Pantalon et Colombine (F minor)
16. Valse allemande (A♭ major)
17. Paganini (F minor-A♭ major)
18. Aveu (D♭ major)
19. Promenade (A♭ major)
20. Pause (A♭ major)
21. Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins (A♭ major)
Myra Hess (1890-1965), piano
Recorded 1938

[@hyramesshiramess1035]

BRAVO! It really is splendid, isn't it? One of the very best in record.

[@berlinzerberus]

Solch ein differenziertes Anschlagsvermögen hört man selten, das ist ihre große Stärke, die der Myra Hess, der 'anderen' großen Pianistin aus England! Marvellous!

[@dasglasperlenspiel10]

I think this is a wonderful performance. The tempi have real character, the voices are clearly delineated, the rhythms are clean, and the whole piece has a wonderfully introverted sense of passion and commitment to LISTENING. Thank you for posting this great performance!

[@flugelmaniac]

Dear Berlinzerberus, one of the main reasons that Myra Hess is remembered today and was so admired during her lifetime was that her powers of expressive interpretation were so great....she is on the same level as the other expressive giants of the piano. She also had magnificent tone production, so good if fact,that only the very, very best can rival it.

[@BeBopElmo]

Beautiful performance by a genuine artist.

[@CraigFarangBa]

Wow! One of the best performances of this masterpiece that I have heard. Thanks for posting it!

[@urherman1]

I heard Hess and Novaes in concert--At their best both pianists stood alone and were different I heard Novaes play Carnaval twice --don't compare them both different but both great.--Hess gave great concerts until the last few years of her life when illness took over and her family virtually removed her from the concert stage But before that I heard an all Beethoven program in Carnegie which to this day has not been surpassed. Novaes' powers also diminished at the end so it depends when you heard these pianists. fortunately I heard both in their magnificent primes

[@pianopera]

Thank you for your very interesting comment. You were you so lucky to have heard both ladies "live" in their prime! I take it that you have a respectable age by now!

[@urherman1]

pianopera! am 83

[@hildademsky8639]

love your comments.

[@hildademsky8639]

love the background notes.

[@hyramesshiramess1035]

I will always adore Myra Hess, but her tidy, meticulous, beautifully crafted version of Carnaval reminds me of a series of finely detailed sepia engravings bound in tooled leather, while Novaes' vibrant rendition is like a roomful of exquisitely colorful impressionistic masterpieces perfectly placed in a beautiful Old World marble gallery. It's impossible to say which I like better, but I must admit I lean towards Novaes because of her spontaneity, always fascinating -- sometimes startling -- emphasis of bass lines and inner voices,deep affection, and joyous, hurtling, devil-may-care approach to the finale. Nowhere near as tidy as Myra Hess, Novaes, nevertheless, managed to be more enthralling in live performance of this work than the Great Dame.

[@miguelleiton3645]

Excepcional interpretacion de la obra de Schumann....!!!!!!!!!

[@fyx1926]

It is always good to hear "old" performances and in this case there is a good description of the music But most of all this music is really enjoyable. Thanks KZbin , and I don't often think that!!JJ

[@JamesVaughan]

Agreed...there was a clip here on YT from her performance of the 1st mvmt of Beethoven's Op. 57 in which she could hardly be called laid back! But Dame Myra always differed from some "hyper-Romantic" virtuosi among her contemporaries in her integrity and respect for what the composer wrote, always putting that first!

[@urherman1]

Although I remember Novaes' great performances of Carnaval -it is different than Hess listen to both and accept what each offers they are both great They are on the same level

[@TJFNYC212]

+Herman Joseph Novaes was one of the greats. I think her Chopin is definitive.... Alicia Delarrocha also does a great job with Carnaval.... 3 great woman pianists

[@gerardbedecarter]

A beautiful and expressive performance of these wonderful pieces !!

[@jackatherton0111]

One of her few recordings that Hess liked, along with Beethoven Op. 109. Mendelssohn and also Clara Schumann awakened British musical sensibilities. Although Hess was not a Clara Schumann pupil you sense the affinity. She is never neurotic, always clear-headed, lyrical and profound. There are other aspects of Schumann that Hess (and Clara) did not channel, but this is wonderful music making.

[@garfreed]

Absolutely delightful!!!

[@LaMusicadallEssenza]

Wonderful... Thanks!

[@paulostroff99]

Lovely playing.TY P for posting.

[@mikepen3477]

There will never be another Myra Hess.

[@GDT908]

Merci, Thank you, Danke schön !

[@Framblott]

Evgeniy Kissin has a brilliant recording of this piece. Heard it about 20 times on WETA FM here in Washington DC.

[@berlinzerberus]

...perhaps i am wrong! I should listen to much more performances of Myra Hess. My 'objections' are highly specific and not to be understood negatively. I love her playing very much!

[@radovanlorkovic3562]

Wunderbar!

[@pianolo123]

Great !

[@flugelmaniac]

dear berlinzerberus....Interesting comment...My personal view of Myra Hess is that she was not restrained in any way in her expressive powers, but that there is nothing 'florid','continental' or 'italianate' in any way shape of form about her expressive style..She comes across more like a Wagnerian style heroine in her Beethoven playing....and in the few recordings of Chopin, her interpretation is one of the deepest emotionally,without the merest hint of cultural idiosyncratic style

[@morinoroba]

Brava!

[@flugelmaniac]

dear soami2u............I think I know what you mean by 'restrained' here...........however,IMHO when it comes to letting rip, Dame Myra is one of the least restrained and most forceful players ever..............her FF's are often truly colossal..

[@michelangelomulieri5134]

My reference recordings of Carnaval are: Rachmaninov, Michelangeli, Hess and Novaes.

[@williamcorke9464]

This is a great performance. (IMHO, naturally...)

[@JamesVaughan]

It seems to me that Dame Myra strikes a nice balance between a "modern" approach to Schumann's score and a more passionate, Romantic one. I think her playing represents the best of the "English school", restrained but not dry...Clara Schumann was always warmly received during her concert tours in Britain, and her way of playing her husband's music is supposed to have become the standard there (though Paderewski spoke quite disdainfully of it, his own style of playing the diametrical opposite!)

[@paulprocopolis]

Agreed, but I wonder who the 'other' great English pianist is - Solomon? Curzon? or maybe Lympany?!

[@berlinzerberus]

In a way you are right, but listen to op.57 and compare this to Arrau, Backhaus [German style] and Richter, Gilels [Russian sryle]. They do always play with an i n n e r extreme emotional range going into the keys and coming out of the piano. They are going through their emotions and are ready to die and to fight for them..its very hard for me to say it in English,,! Myra Hess doesnt have this quality imho. She might play with an colossal approach but her 'exressive' style seems objective to me!

[@berlinzerberus]

Perhaps restrained in the sense of controlled emotions or feelings, n o t showing everything, more like the English character..not showing them, but nonetheless they do exist for example in the 'colossal FF´s'. Being in control could mean that you're not always in control; but that when you get out of control, you can get back into it immediately. 'English' school, contrary to the 'Russian' or 'German' school, perceived as an antagonism!

[@kirillkorsunenko]

Very interesting

[@paulprocopolis]

500 characters remaining Create a video response or Post A wonderful recording, reflecting every twist and turn of character and emotion in the music - the work could have been written for her!

[@paulprocopolis]

Ah - thanks, I should learn my German better! Enjoy your weekend too.

[@berlinzerberus]

German: pianist----->masculine gender pianistin----->feminine gender ..This should be understood as referring to Moura Lympany! ;)) Have a nice weekend, my friend!

[@michieldpiano]

It lacks the insanity of Schumann. Too restraint and cerebral interpretation of the score. But it is enjoyable.

[@adpynacker1]

Not a patch on Guiomar Novaes, who plays with far more poetry, spontaneity, but also control of the scale of the work. Myra Hess was overrated in my opinion.

[@robertholliston]

And you are entitled to your opinion, naturally. But something to take into account: every old-timer who heard Dame Myra live (some going back earlier than this 1938 recording) insists vehemently that very few of her recordings (some say ONLY the Beethoven Op. 109) offer more than a mere hint of what she was like in recital or concert. Of course we'll never know (or I won't - perhaps you are an elderly concertgoer?) but this suggests that she was not so much overrated as not well represented by recordings. In any case, I'm happy with the recordings we do have and thrilled to live in an era whose technology allows me to hear so many great artists of the past.

[@adpynacker1]

I agree with the thrust of what you write. I personally find her playing rather dis-organised in comparison to that of her best contemporaries: Solomon and Moiseiwitsch, for instance. Novaes, who was also her contemporary, was Hess's superior both in technique and artistic inspiration. Her Carnaval is on another level.

[@pianopera]

adpynacker1 Sorry, but I think you are writing nonsense -- Hess was never "overrated", her fame during life was well deserved. She was one of Tobias Matthay's best pupils, a natural, subtle pianist with great communicative and spiritual qualities and a golden tone. Even if you prefer Novaes, this is a glorious version of the "Carnaval" by any standard... what do you mean, "rather disorganised"? Do listen to the two versions of the Schumann Concerto that I also posted; they are among the most beautiful recordings of this work ever made, capturing Schumann's style to perfection.

[@adpynacker1]

Hess's reputation was greatly raised (and quite rightly so) by her appearances during the Second World War, especially the National Gallery concerts. I have known the Carnaval recording for over 25 years. I don't think that she contrasts the moods of the different scenes in Carnaval with as much insight as others; the piece benefits from Novaes' individuality - she won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire playing Carnaval and had it in her repertoire for over 55 years. In terms of pianists of world reputation it is maybe not a great accolade for Hess to be described as "one of Tobias Matthay's best pupils", since other than Moura Lympany and Irene Scharrer there were virtually none others that had significant international reputations, although a number became first-rate teachers. Please accept that I expressed a personal opinion. I have been listening to the playing of great pianists for over 40 years. It's a good thing different people like different aspects of different performances!

[@pianopera]

adpynacker1 I think you not only underestimate Hess -- who made already very successful tours in America and Canada in the 1920s, long before the National Gallery concerts -- but also Tobias Matthay, a very influential teacher who also taught Clifford Curzon, York Bowen, Harriet Cohen and Eileen Joyce, just to name a few. I can only hope that you will listen more to the recordings of Myra Hess, maybe one day you will change your opinion!