Ian Hobson: Robert Schumann Cycle: “Carnaval Jests” in Review
Ian Hobson, piano
The Chapel at Saint Bartholomew’s Church, New York, NY
April 22, 2022
It has been more than two long years since virtuoso pianist Ian Hobson has graced New York. His Schumann series was cruelly interrupted—even the venue where he began presenting it (SubCulture) became a casualty of the pandemic. The original idea was to present the complete solo piano music and the piano-based chamber music in fifteen concerts over three seasons, and I sincerely hope he continues.
Undaunted by all this, Mr. Hobson changed the location to the inspiring Chapel at Saint Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue. Among Schumann’s many obsessions was the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) on the Rhine, so I imagine he might have approved of the liturgical setting, which provided an extra layer of irony to the “Carnival Jests” theme of Mr. Hobson’s program.
The carnival/papillons subjects were largely inspired by Schumann’s feverish discovery and reading of the works of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, known as Jean-Paul. Contemporary Thomas Carlyle said that his writing groaned “with indescribable metaphors… flowing onward, not like a river, but an inundation, circling in complex eddies, chafing and gurgling now this way, now that, the proper current sinks out of view amid the boundless uproar.” This is similar to what many listeners thought upon hearing Schumann’s piano music.
Let us recall that even Schumann’s wife, Clara, one of the great piano virtuosi of the nineteenth century and one of her husband’s staunchest advocates, was constantly begging him to produce something more comprehensible and easier on the listener. The larger cycles of his music were almost never presented in their entirety, but as a group of a few extracts. Our modern concert culture frowns on such abbreviations.
Mr. Hobson, one of the great virtuosi of our century, gave us not one, but four of these “butterfly” or “masked ball” sequences on Tuesday night. The atmosphere of the masked balls, commonly held during Carnaval, the multi-month period of indulgence prior to Lent, invites disguise, intrigue, and romance. Jean-Paul (and by inference Schumann) saw people as potential butterflies who first had to emerge from their larval state, an apt analogy for a composer just starting out. Schumann’s works abound in ciphers, coded musical references to places (ASCH), himself (SCHA), and Clara (a descending scale motto found in many works). Asch was the birthplace of Schumann’s pre-Clara fiancée, Ernestine von Fricken. Even the word Faschingsschwank contains both the ASCH and the SCHA.
Mr. Hobson began with the rarely played Intermezzi, Op. 4, a set designed to be played without interruption, which Schumann referred to as “longer papillons,” and pièces phantastiques. He played with great impetuosity and brought an appropriately feverish anxiety to these works that “begin in the middle,” so to speak. Their discourse is often fragmentary, jumping from one thought to another. The second Intermezzo has words printed above its central section’s theme: Meine Ruh ist hin (My peace is gone), the famous song sung by the betrayed Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust. Mr. Hobson brought a lovely yearning to this section. The final Intermezzo contains an exact quote of the “ABEGG” theme (Schumann’s Op. 1), the name of a countess Schumann may have fancied.
Hobson then preceded to the Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Jest from Vienna), Op. 26, which Schumann regarded as a five-movement sonata, though only its Finale is in sonata form. The first movement is the one filled with jest: fleeting musical portraits of Schubert, Beethoven, and perhaps Strauss the elder; but its greatest laugh is the appearance of the Marseillaise, which was forbidden to be played in Vienna, so devastated were the Austrians by Napoleon’s ravages of thirty years prior. The three succeeding movements are a tender Romanze, a light-hearted Scherzino, and the turbulent Intermezzo in the exotic key of E-flat minor. At times, Mr. Hobson’s orchestral treatment of the piano would allow smaller note values to swamp the melodic lines, but his sense of the big picture was admirable. I began to be worried that either the acoustic of the chapel was too live, or the piano had been voiced too glassy. But suddenly he would pull the dynamic back and the result was gorgeous.
Following the post-pandemic fashion of intermissionless concerts, Mr. Hobson proceeded directly to Schumann’s Papillons, Op. 2, another masked ball, this one based directly (though not programmatically) on Richter’s novel Flegeljahre (Adolescence), with its disguised twin brothers, Walt and Vult, both after the same girl, Wina. After the Grossvatertanz (Grandfather’s Dance) which signaled the end of every ball, the clock strikes six (a.m.) through misty memories of what went before, and it all vanishes. Here, Mr. Hobson played divinely, with the intended pedaling. Also of note, this ending features another one of Schumann’s stranger ideas: a chord is played through the release of each note, rather than it being played. At some places during the whole, I wished for greater delicacy and lingering or stretching of phrases. For me, the essence of Romanticism lies in the Faustian bargain, one says to the moment “Stay, for Thou art so fair,” of course, once one does, everything goes to the devil. However, I could also see how Mr. Hobson was de-cluttering the music of decades of sentimentality by amateur players.
The rousing conclusion was provided by the ultimate masked ball, Carnaval, Op. 9 (Cute scenes based on four notes, the ASCH and SCHA). This is no “roman à clef” since everyone is identified in the titles of the dizzying succession of movements: Pierrot, Arlequin, Eusebius (Schumann’s dreamy side), Florestan (Schumann’s fiery side), Charina (Clara), Chopin, Estrella, Pantalon et Colombine, Paganini to name only some. Here Mr. Hobson seems to have lived with the music longer, it somehow went deeper into his pianism and his poetry. Of particular delight were: Pierrot, Chiarina, Chopin (breathtaking pianissimo repeat), Reconnaisance, Valse allemande, Aveu, and Promenade. Here Mr. Hobson enjoyed the softer colors and brought out the sense of longing. The work closes with the “carnival jest” of a march that is in three-four time, of the “League of David” (sensitive comprehending artists like Schumann and his friends) versus the Philistines (sounds kind of relevant doesn’t it?). The most admirable thing about Mr. Hobson’s overall take on these works is the headlong plunge he takes, seems very Schumann-esque to me, though Schumann was also a hyper-refined poetic sensibility.
Dear Mr. Hobson, please return soon and often, and show us these treasures in whatever venue is available.
