Ian Hobson: Complete Schumann Piano Works – The Violin Sonatas in Review
Ian Hobson, pianist; Andrés Cárdenes, violinist,
Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, NY
September 26, 2025
For those who have missed news of one of the epic piano cycles of the past decade, Ian Hobson is nearing the end of his live New York recital traversal of Schumann’s piano works. Having launched the cycle on February 19, 2020 – just before COVID-19 obliterated concert life as we know it – Mr. Hobson resumed the series in March of 2022 and has enriched New York musical life with several Schumann concerts each year since. As New York Concert Review writer Frank Daykin described Mr. Hobson, he is a “heroic completist.” As such, Mr. Hobson has included not just all of Schumann’s solo piano works (large, small, celebrated, and neglected), but all of Schumann’s chamber works that feature piano as well. On September 26, for the penultimate concert of the cycle, we heard all three of Schumann’s sonatas for violin and piano (Op. 105, Op. 121, and WoO 2) with guest violinist Andrés Cárdenes – a program of extraordinary difficulty and one which many music lovers seemed to know in advance would be a special event. Friday’s crowd filled the Tenri hall to capacity, so Schumann lovers who have not obtained tickets for the final concert on November 7 will want to do so posthaste.
Though this Schumann cycle is by nature piano-centric, it should be noted first off what an inspired choice it was to collaborate with violinist Andrés Cárdenes. Well-matched to Mr. Hobson in terms of his decades of international performances, enormous discography, accolades, and versatility as teacher and conductor, he also plays with a full, rich tone, and a resonance that faces little danger of being overwhelmed even by the typically large sound of Mr. Hobson – or the highly resonant piano at the Tenri Institute. Additionally, Mr. Cárdenes possesses that kind of felicitous technique where there is simply nothing too difficult: he makes child’s play of rapid leaps, double-stops, and often unwieldy passagework, with nary a scratch, stumble, or strain. It was one thing to hear Schumann’s bravura fistfuls on the piano in these works – sometimes so awkwardly scored that they sound like, well, fistfuls – but then to hear some of that same material in the violin part played with such consistently surefire intonation was astonishing.
Hearing all three sonatas in an evening was memorable, and as Mr. Hobson commented after intermission: “We don’t get to hear them very often and certainly not in one recital.” He then pointed out that reverse chronological order had been chosen for the program, with Sonatas No. 3 (WoO 2) and No. 2 (Op. 121) coming before intermission and Sonata No. 1 (Op. 105) closing the program. There seemed a slight implication of having saved the best for last as he announced that the Op. 105 (composed in 1851) is “undoubtedly a masterpiece.” To this listener, that hint of a preference for the earliest sonata seemed evident in the duo’s performance itself. In it the duo found warmth, phrases that breathed, and structural cohesion. There was even a sense of spaciousness that afforded the observation of repeats (generally and wisely omitted in the more taxing works preceding intermission). The Sonata No. 1 was worth the trip by itself.
So, what of the first half of the program? The later Sonatas 2 and 3 did constitute a mammoth achievement simply in terms of the duo’s impressive unity as they tackled the challenging writing – not to mention their stamina – but this listener wanted more from the experience. For one thing, there needed to be more dynamic contrast, particularly on the softer end of things, where the score is marked piano or pianissimo. Such dynamics of course indicate more than mere decibel levels, as they evoke echoes, whispers, and entry points to much more, so it is a loss to miss those opportunities. Whether by mutual decision or a desire to be heard over the piano, Mr. Cárdenes had very few moments of piano or pianissimo dynamics himself, though he clearly is capable of the full spectrum, as we later heard.
To compound matters on the first half, the duo seemed bound to each other less by the glue of phrasing than by the rivets of rhythm, with accentuation dominating to excess. Hearing a composer noted for his shifts of mood and color, from his robust alter ego Florestan to that of the vulnerable dreamer Eusebius, one felt hard pressed to find any signs of Eusebius. Was the difference between first and second halves simply a matter of settling into the hall and getting bearings, or was it musical preference? It is hard to say.
For readers new to these works, the Sonata No. 3 in A minor (WoO 2) was considered Schumann’s last complete work (based on the co-composed Brahms-Dietrich-Schumann “F-A-E” Sonata, of which the Brahms and Dietrich portions were later replaced by Schumann to make the resulting work his own). Some feel that the piece’s patchwork history is evident in ways that detract from its unity and potency. Clara Schumann suppressed it on the advice of violinist Joseph Joachim, and it lay dormant until publication a century later in 1956. By contrast, the Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121) from 1853 is sometimes thought to reflect more of Schumann’s truer self, though the writing is technically ambitious, or to use Mr. Hobson’s word, “impressive.” It was certainly technically impressive in the Cárdenes-Hobson delivery, with only the occasional glitch, but the virtuoso elements felt a bit too dominant, taking on a relentless quality throughout. It is tempting to call a bit of “riding roughshod” one of the hazards of complete cycles – after all, the program was monstrously hard, and it is not easy to “sell” all of a composer’s oeuvre equally.
Fortunately, the Sonata Op. 105 came as a reminder of the reasons we treasure Schumann. It was a beauty in which virtuosity was at the service of musical substance, and both players shone – as did Schumann himself. It was greeted with a long standing ovation.
One eagerly awaits the cycle’s final concert, November 7, featuring an enticing program of the Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11, and, as the second half, the Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6. The concert is entitled “Florestan and Eusebius.” As they say, “run, don’t walk” to hear it.
