Woldemar Bargiel (1828-1897)
Trois Pièces Caractéristiques

Vinzenz Lachner (1811-1893)
Deux Pièces pour piano, op. 52

Alexander Dreyschock (1818-1869)
Rhapsodie, op. 40 n° 4 "Zum Wintermärchen"

Stephen Heller (1813-1888)
Deux Tarantelles, op. 85

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Variations sur un thème propre en mi bémol majeur, WoO 24

Elisabeth von Herzogenberg (1847-1892)
Allegro appassionato, extrait de "Huit Pièces pour piano"

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Gavotte de C.W. Gluck

Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900)
Fantasistykker, op. 54

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Six romances sans paroles, op. 62

Eduard Bernsdorf (1825-1901)
Trois Intermezzi, op. 10 "Die Livellen"

Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884)
Esquisses, op. 4

Kathrin Schmidlin, piano

Clara Schumann(-Wieck) (1819 Leipzig – 1896 Frankfurt am Main) was a widely travelled pianist – appointed as Imperial and Royal Chamber Virtuoso – composer, piano teacher, and editor; in this unique capacity, she embodied the most significant German female musi¬cian of the 19th century. Having begun her pianistic career as a child prodigy, Clara Josephine Wieck con¬tinued her path after marrying Robert Schumann in 1840. She subsequently appeared as a performer and composer under the name Clara Schumann, which is used in the following text. With her virtuoso piano playing, the musician inspired around thirty composers to create works dedicated to her, although she incorporated only a few of them into her repertoire. She primarily championed the works of Bach, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Brahms; however, she regularly performed only a few piano pieces by her contemporaries Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Stephen Heller in her concerts. This selection introduces partially forgotten works by ten Romantic composers and one female composer from Denmark, Germany, Czechia, and Hungary. The diversity of forms is reflected in character pieces, dances, songs without words, variations, fantasy pieces, and sketches. Woldemar Bargiel (1828 Berlin – 1897 Berlin), Clara Schumann’s maternal half-brother, provides a familial opening to this stylistically diverse double album. Bargiel studied at the Leipzig Conservatory under Ferdinand David, Niels W. Gade, and Ignaz Moscheles, later himself becoming a sought-after composition teacher. In addition to Leo Blech, his students at the Berlin Music Academy included the American Charles Martin Loeffler and the Swiss Paul Juon. The Drei Charakterstücke (Three Character Pieces) Op. 8 begin with a stormy pathos reminiscent of Robert Schumann as a model. The composer also dedicated the Fantasie Op. 5 and the Drei Fantasiestücke Op. 9 for piano to his half-sister Clara Schumann. [..]