(Adelina de Lara | 1951/52) Schumann: Etudes & Romances

Описание: One of Clara Schumann's last pupils, the British pianist Adelina de Lara (1872-1961) left no commercial recordings. But in her 78th year she made a small number of recordings for the Clara Schumann Society in London, and was subsequently recorded privately by piano enthusiast Michael G. Thomas, thereby preserving her playing for posterity.

de Lara is interesting to us pianoheads not only for the quality of her playing but since she is as pure a product of the Wieck/Schumann school as one can reasonably hope for. Her first lessons were with her father, which due to her unusual gifts led to a career as a child prodigy in England. This would become a lifeline at an all too early age, when at 11 she lost both her parents within the span of a week. By her own account she had learnt more than 200 compositions two years later, to help sustain herself and her remaining young sister. It was in this state that she came to the attention of Fanny Davies, one of Clara Schumann's finest and most observant students. She took an interest in young Adelina and began to work with her, with the goal of eventually being able to pass her to her own teacher in Frankfurt. The audition came a year later, probably in the spring of 1886, at which Adelina played a piece by Bach and Johann Wilhelm Hässler's 'Grand Gigue' -- to a pleased Frau Schumann, who accepted the young pianist, as of yet barely knowing a word of German, as a pupil. de Lara began working with Clara when she was 14 years old and was hence formed and immersed in Schumann's ways with interpretation, piano playing, and musical ideals throughout her teenage years, a time she later remembered as the happiest of her life. Upon her graduation in the spring of 1891, now 19 years old, Clara wrote to Johannes Brahms: "Adelina de Lara left my school today. She will have a great future."

The recordings we have of de Lara are from a full 60 years later, then, and unfortunately centered around a wealth of Schumann's large scale compositions which did little to serve her memory at this advanced age. The playing isn't without its points of light, but is on the whole dim and musically imprecise, mismatched in scale, and occasionally held back by technical obstacles she no longer could surmount in tempo. But among them are also these shorter compositions which, alongside an unforgettable performance of the Andante & Variations with Albert Ferber (available elsewhere on YouTube), show her in a more favourable light. Here the music is largely under her control, she parades a hearty and beautifully nuanced tone, and piano playing which sits right at the intersection between poetry and pure music.

Personally I quiver as I listen to this. Playing now is not only one of the last outposts of romantic piano playing from one who was born into the tradition, but in addition beautiful examples of the unaffected, warm-hearted type of musicianship that was taught and advocated by Robert and Clara Schumann. At the technical level, note the robust and melodic tone, the vigorous rhythm, and the peculiar mix between analytical musicianship, voice imitations, and reserved - reserved - yet ever present romantic poetry. Qualities which unite both de Lara, Davies, Eibenschütz, and - from reports - Leonard Borwick, Clara's greatest student. The reason is presumably the pains she took to mold her pupils after a certain ideal. Even breaking with those who would not fall in line, like Natalie Janotha, or who developed competing influences, like Mary Wurm (Anton Rubinstein). This in contrast to Liszt and Leschetizky, whose chief interest was the cultivation of art, in whatever direction it may go.

Musical traditions inevitably wither with time. Clara's pupils today represent a style of playing which gives us a peek into the mind of one of the giants of the 19th century, and with a little bit of research and speculation allows us to become Schumann pupils ourselves. Students of a kind of playing which shares several of its principles with the views which dominated in music as recently as 20 years ago, such as its interpretative approach, quest for correct understanding, and sound musical thinking, but which stylistically, in the words of Harold C. Schonberg, has long since vanished from earth.


ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
00:00 - Etude in A minor, Op.3 No.1 (after Paganini)
03:14 - Etude in A-flat major, Op.56 No.4
07:21 - Etude in B minor, Op.56 No.5
10:00 - Romance in B-flat minor, Op.28 No.1
12:34 - Romance in F-sharp major, Op.28 No.2
15:45 - Romance in B major, Op.28 No.3

Adelina de Lara, piano
Source: Private Recordings

Recs:
Autumn 1951 (Op.3)
Summer 1952 (Op.56, Op.28)

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