It is undisputed that Schumann is one of the most important voices in musical romanticism. But some questions are still hotly debated: How was his relationship with his wife Clara, the greatest pianist of the 19th century? What brought him to the insane asylum? What did he die of? Lasciviously presented revelations often put Schumann’s rest of life in the background. He has an inwardly immensely rich biography in a turbulent epoch. Based on the secured knowledge, this audio biography tells the whole story.
There was a ferment in Germany politically and artistically, and Schumann was looking for a new kind of music that would express this troubled time. In his Humoresque op. 20 there is an inner voice that is only sung in an imaginary way. Unfamiliar chants that I had never heard flowed through my inner being chants that echoed around me like ghost voices. So it says in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Kreisleriana, which inspired Schumann to write his piano cycle of the same name. And in February 1854 he himself heard such voices, as is well known, the beginning of the end. An accident? A polyphonic audio biography can best pursue such underlying contexts, and so the Inner Voice also provides its title and guiding principle. It stands for Schumann’s enormous creativity as well as for his unstable, endangered psyche and his sensitivity to world changes.
The ten-part audio biography also gives a lot of space to Schumann’s wild youth and, of course, the stirring battle for Clara, probably the greatest romance novel in music history. However, nothing is added: Everything is based on the original sources, which are dramatic enough, realistic and touching. And as is hardly possible in a normal biography, music plays a leading role: around 150 excerpts from works of all genres illuminate Schumann’s creative path, including early works and rarities that are rarely heard. Performers such as John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Eric Le Sage and Christian Gerhaher vouch for the highest quality. A complete live recording of the spring symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mariss Jansons completes the audio biography. Outstanding actors such as Udo Wachtveitl (narrator), Matthias Brandt (Robert Schumann) and Brigitte Hobmeier (Clara) ensure special listening pleasure.
