One of Britain’s best-known musicians, Nicholas Daniel has premiered hundreds of works for the oboe and made many critically acclaimed recordings. Daniel’s program with pianist Julius Drake features a wide selection of chamber music by Robert Schumann, alongside the Three Romances, Op. 22 by Clara Schumann. At the time these pieces were written, there was a rapidly growing interest in amateur music making in the home, fueled by a burgeoning middle class. Brahms, Schumann, and Mendelssohn all contributed significantly to the array of works published for this market, and it was usual for parts to be substituted for whatever instruments happened to be available. Although Robert Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 94 are the only works here originally composed for the oboe, the program is in keeping with what the Schumanns would have considered normal practice.
Robert & Clara Schumann: Works for Oboe and Piano
Clara before she was a Schumann: this painting was completed just months before Clara Wieck married Robert Schumann. Johann Heinrich Schramm, 1840.
