Robert Schumann: Waldszenen – Peter Serkin

Peter Serkin performs Robert Schumann's Waldszenen, Op.82, at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Studzinski Recital Hall, in Brunswick, Maine, United States, on July 29, 2018.

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Schumann's Waldszenen ("Forest scenes") is a cycle of fragments, written in a matter of days over New Year, 1849; it was his last major cycle for solo piano. The forest that it explores was a subject close to the heart of any self-respecting Romantic, be they writer, poet, artist or musician. Its appeal lay in its contrast: nature at its most beautiful but also an unknowable place. But there's more to it than that, for it is not simply about "nature" per se but the notion of man's position within that wilderness, and indeed how engagement with such a thing could in turn affect man's own view of himself; the external as a means of examining the internal, in other words. Certainly, in Waldszenen this is no objective foray into the woods but a very personal reaction to this imagined landscape; and equally striking is the sense that each piece represents just a shard of a larger experience, an aural snapshot, if you will.

On the whole it is the more bucolic aspect that Schumann explores, though these pieces are not without darker shadows. And while they may be technically fairly straightforward, their changeability calls for the quickest of reactions and a wealth of subtle nuance.

All seems well in the first number (Eintritt, "Entry"), its gently murmuring theme welcoming us into the forest in the most benign manner possible. The energetic Jäger auf der Lauer ("Hunters on the lookout"), horn calls aplenty, gives the lie to the idea that Schumann – beset by personal demons by this point in his life – had lost his compositional way, and there's a delightful mock-seriosity to the throwaway ending. The mood switches again in the next two pieces, Einsame Blumen ("Lonely flowers") and Verrufene Stelle ("Place of evil fame"), tinged in turn by sadness and then a persistent unease that is only banished by the rollicking Freundliche Landschaft ("Friendly landscape"), which is followed by a study in consolation and reassurance, Herberge ("Shelter"). With No.7, the famous Vogel als Prophet ("Bird as prophet"), Schumann seems to reach almost proto-Impressionistic realms, its central chorale-like section lending it an almost sacred gravitas. We return to compositionally safer, more pastoral territory with Jagdlied ("Hunting song"), which presents an image of the play of horses' hooves and the jolly red coats of the hunstmen, a notably child-friendly vision. With Abschied ("Farewell"), the innocence of the opening seems to be regained as we bid the forest a poignant farewell.

Source: Harriet Smith (hyperion-records.co.uk)



Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

♪ Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), Op.82 (1848-1849)

i. Entritt (Entry). Nicht zu schnell, in B flat major
ii. Jäger auf der Lauer (Hunters on the lookout). Hochst lebhaft, in D minor
iii. Einsame Blumen (Lonely Flowers). Einfach, in B flat major
iv. Verrufene Stelle (Haunted Place). Zeimlich langsam, in D minor
v. Freundliche Landschaft (Friendly Landscape). Schnell, in B flat major
vi. Herberge (Wayside Inn). Mässig, in E flat major
vii. Vogel als Prophet (Bird as Prophet). Langsam, sehr zart, in G minor
viii. Jagdlied (Hunting Song). Rasch, kräftig, in E flat major
ix. Abschied (Farewell). Nicht schnell, in B flat major

Peter Serkin, piano

Bowdoin International Music Festival, Studzinski Recital Hall, Brunswick, Maine, United States, July 29, 2018

(HD 720p)

The American pianist Peter Serkin, who has died at the age of 72, had an exceptional musical pedigree: his father was the pianist Rudolf Serkin and his maternal grandfather the violinist and conductor Adolf Busch. Serkin's musical sympathies were enormously broad, and though he played a huge amount of contemporary music he never liked to be referred to as a new music "champion", he merely felt playing the music of his time part of his role as a musician.

He entered Philadelphia's Curtis Institute in 1958, aged 11, and studied with Mieczysław Horszowski, Lee Luvisi and his own father. He made his debut the following year at the Malboro Music Festival which then led to major engagements with top-flight orchestras and conductors like the Cleveland and George Szell and the Philadelphia and Eugene Ormandy.

In 1968, aged 21, he took a break from music, moving with his wife and young child to Mexico. It was apparently hearing the music of JS Bach on a neighbour’s radio that convinced him of his need to play again. He returned and continued a major career which also included, in 1973, forming the chamber group Tashi (with Ida Kavafian, violin, Fred Sherry, cello, and Richard Stoltzman, clarinet), initially assembled to play Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (which they performed over 100 times and recorded in 1975). Together they commissioned numerous works and recorded for RCA. (The group reformed in 2008 for a tour to mark Messiaen's centenary.)

Serkin's repertoire ranged from Bach's Goldberg Variations (which he recorded five times, the first at 18 and the last at 70) to numerous modern works written especially for him by major composers including Elliott Carter, Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio, Peter Lieberson, Oliver Knussen, Alexander Goehr, Tōru Takemitsu and Charles Wuorinen.

He recorded extensively for RCA, and among his finest releases were Messiaen's Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus ("Messiaen's harmonic colours take on a luminous quality under his fingers, the rhythmic ostinati are imperiously compelling; the dynamic range, immense, yet always within musical bounds; the total effect, overwhelming" wrote Felix Aprahamian in Gramophone's December 1976 issue), a Takemitsu programme, an album of six Mozart piano concertos with the ECO and Alexander Schneider, the Brahms violin sonatas with Pamela Frank (for Decca) and an album of music for two pianists with András Schiff (for ECM New Series). Serkin was unusual among top-flight pianists in playing on both modern pianos and period fortepianos, using a Graf instrument to record the last six Beethoven piano sonatas (for Musical Concepts).

Serkin taught at Curtis, Juilliard, Yale and, latterly, at Bard College in Upstate New York near where he lived.

Source: gramophone.co.uk

It all began in May 1964, when Bowdoin College Music Department chair Robert K. Beckwith invited Lewis Kaplan to propose a concert series to take place at the College that summer. Thus the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival was born. After a successful first season of concerts, the Festival returned in 1965 with 19 students and a cadre of contemporary composers including Elliott Carter, Meyer Kupferman, George Rochberg, and Morton Subotnick. The Festival's contemporary music component became known as the Charles E. Gamper Festival, after its chief patron. In 1966, George Crumb made the first of many Festival appearances for the world premiere of his Eleven Echoes of Autumn. This solidified a tradition of commissioning and offering residencies to notable composers.

Early students who have gone on to prominence, such as Emanuel Ax and Fred Sherry, helped to cement the Festival's reputation as an attractive summer program for top musicians to hone their skills. With alumni in many major orchestras, chamber groups, and conservatories worldwide, that vibrant reputation continues.

The Festival grew rapidly as a program of the Bowdoin College Music Department through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, changing its name along the way to the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival. In 1997, the Festival became an independent non-profit organization, and in 2004 changed its name to the Bowdoin International Music Festival in recognition of its world-wide reach.

In September 2014, David Ying and Phillip Ying, members of the famed Ying Quartet, succeeded co-founder Lewis Kaplan as the Festival’s Artistic Directors. Through their leadership, the Festival engages exceptional students and enthusiastic audiences through world-class education and performances. After a competitive admissions process, over 270 students are invited to attend the Festival and study with distinguished faculty and guest artists. Audiences are invited to more than 175 free events such as student performances, lectures, masterclasses, studio classes, and community concerts.

The Festival continues to thrive, attracting record numbers of applicants, continuing to build a diverse and world-renowned faculty, and reaching thousands of music lovers across the globe.

Source: bowdoinfestival.org

More photos


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“Remembering Peter Serkin, the Searching Pianist”

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“Remembering Peter Serkin, the Searching Pianist”

Photo by Pete Checchia

By Tom Huizenga

National Public Radio, US — February 3, 2020

Peter Serkin, a pianist who navigated a distinctive course through classical music with thoughtful interpretations of both standard repertoire and bracing new compositions, died Saturday morning, February 1, at his home in Red Hook, N.Y. at age 72.

The cause of death, announced by his family, was pancreatic cancer.

Serkin came from a prestigious family of musicians. His father, the celebrated pianist Rudolf Serkin, and his maternal grandfather, the violinist and conductor Adolf Busch, embodied old-world traditions – to reverential acclaim.

But Serkin crafted a singularly new-world approach to his career. In his early 20s, disillusioned with the pressures of lineage and tradition, Serkin dropped out from performing altogether, traveling to Asia and listening to albums by the Grateful Dead. After he returned, Serkin co-founded the chamber group Tashi in 1973 (with cellist Fred Sherry, violinist Ida Kavafian and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman), which championed new music and often performed in African-style garments.

Pulitzer-winning critic and USC professor Tim Page thinks of Serkin as something of a rebel. "He might have been likened to Rudyard Kipling's ‘The Cat That Walked by Himself’, Page tells NPR. "He chose fairly early on to explore music in his own way. He augmented his crystalline Mozart and Beethoven performances with contemporary music by Peter Lieberson, Toru Takemitsu and – especially – Olivier Messiaen." Page adds that Tashi made Messiaen's lengthy, meditative Quartet for the End of Time a calling card, performing the piece in concert halls and rock clubs, "helping turn the work into a warhorse".

Photo by Stu Rosner

In a 2012 interview with the Mercury News, Serkin said his penchant for contemporary music was a constant. "I've always been very interested in music that's being written today and in recent music", he told the paper. "That was true even as a child, when that was somewhat discouraged. But it was just a component in me somehow – inquisitive."

Serkin was born in Manhattan on July 24, 1947 and was given the middle name Adolf, after his grandfather. At age 11, he enrolled in the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and studied with the legendary Polish-American pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski. By age 12, Serkin was playing concertos at the Marlboro Festival in Vermont, chamber music in New York and in Cleveland with his father in Mozart's Double Concerto.

In the early '70s, Serkin recorded two albums from seemingly opposite poles: a set of Mozart Piano Concertos and Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus, a two-hour set of solo pieces spanning extremes of emotion and virtuosity. Both recordings were nominated for Grammy awards, and together signaled his way forward in terms of embracing contemporary music and standard repertoire.

Serkin's love for new music resulted in new works, written for him by a wide swath of contemporary composers, from Toru Takemitsu and Luciano Berio to Oliver Knussen and Bright Sheng. He played entire recitals of works he alone had commissioned.

Later, Serkin became a sympathetic teacher, holding posts at the Mannes School in New York, at the Tanglewood Music Institute, at Bard College and at the Juilliard School, where pianist Simone Dinnerstein was one of his pupils.

"The most important lesson I took from my studies with Peter Serkin was that he didn't think there was one answer to the question of how to interpret a score", Dinnerstein tells NPR. "He was thoughtful and questioning and didn't rely on received wisdom. The lessons were investigations into the music that we made together, and by doing that he taught me how to be an independent thinker, and to be brave about following the path wherever the music led me."

Serkin's performances have been described as coming from both the head and the heart. Dinnerstein says he rarely played it safe. "I loved the inventiveness and varied nature of Peter's playing. Nothing was ever even, everything was vibrant and alive." His recording of the Brahms First Piano Concerto, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, she says is prized for its "intimate and touching" second movement.

The last performance Serkin gave was with the Cincinnati Symphony, performing Igor Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds on March 1, 2019.

Page says Serkin's playing was always thoughtful. "He had lyricism and technique to burn, but both were invariably put to the service of a keen intelligence; there was never anything showy or ostentatious about his playing."

"His self-effacing, warm personality", Page adds, "was attested to by all who worked with him. He was not only revered and respected – he was loved".

Source: npr.org

Photo by Don Hunstein

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Robert Schumann: Waldszenen – Peter Serkin

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