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Tony Miksak

WORDS ON BOOKS by Tony Miksak for KZYX&Z-FM, 90.7 Philo CA
Airs Sunday, July 29, 2007 at 10:55 am, & Wednesday, August 1 at 1 pm

Title: Life & Death of a Musician

(MUSIC UP) This is Tony Miksak with a few Words on Books.

Walking down a street in the lovely village of Mendocino, I spotted a young woman, perhaps an old girl, not sure. She was sitting on a ledge near the sidewalk, reading a large hardcover book without its cover.

What are you reading, I asked her. "Harry Potter."

Well, I'm doing the same thing. Except my large hardcover book without its cover is called "Robert Schumann: Life & Death of a Musician" by John Worthen.

Her book is 784 pages. Mine 496. Hers is larger. Mine is deeper.

Harry Potter has a mysterious scar on his forehead. Robert Schumann has a mysteriously numb finger that prevents him from performing on the piano. He also has syphilis, but that's another story.

Robert Schumann lived in Germany from his birth in 1810 to death in an asylum, 1856. Along the way he produced some of the most beautiful and unusual music of the Romantic century, edited an influential music publication, was friends with great musicians of the day, and married Clara Wieck, a childhood friend, composer and virtuosic pianist in her own right.

Schumann left a puzzling legacy. His accomplishments are there for all to hear, read and perform. His story, however, has been occluded by tales of madness and disorder, gossip about how he damaged himself with infernal devices or experimental operations, controversy about most of the facts of his short life.

Schumann was a breakthrough musician, with a life that would be too much for an ordinary novel. He first met his future wife when she was 8 and he 18. Then there was the mysterious and sudden way his piano playing ended; episodes of psychic and physical pain; their intense friendship with the younger Johannes Brahms, who also loved Clara. And more.

Classical musicians have heard all the stories, best told over a glass of German beer. In John Worthen's erudite and sober new book, many of the tales are set right. Schumann probably was not a manic-depressive. Despite periods of inactivity, he was not lazy, but in fact an incredibly dedicated student of music. His life-long diary writing has been misunderstood for many reasons including this one: he had a habit of not writing in years he was happy, and writing a lot when otherwise.

Robert Schumann first met Clara Wieck when he came to her father for piano lessons. "To be a musician," Worthen writes, "(Schumann) would have to be not just a public performer on the piano, but also a composer... The successful pianist-composers of his generation, such as Mendelssohn, Chopin, Thalberg, Moscheles and Liszt, were all virtuosi on the piano first and foremost... Schumann would have to be good enough to perform not just successfully but superbly."

What others have pointed to as evidence of mental instability, Worthen describes as "a capacity for concentrated and mostly exhilarated bursts of immensely energetic hard work, and for equally extreme periods of cheerful (and not so cheerful) laziness and apathy." In other words, Schumann was an unusually driven artist, but not a crazy one.

As for Schumann's famous capacity for alcohol, Worthen defends him here as well. "It has been accepted without question that his drinking was a proof of the anxiety and depression he was seeking to alleviate. But there are many reasons why people drink too much... the question it is always crucial to ask... is the extent to which (heavy drinkers) damage their work, their career, their job, because of their drinking. There is no evidence, from any period in his life, that Schumann did... even after a drunken evening, he would go to his desk and his piano the next day, often feeling 'terribly weakened' because of his excesses, but determined to be back at work."

Clearly, Worthen is writing in part to defend Schumann from his detractors, and there have been many. This book will cause scholars, musicians and music lovers to think anew about the meaning of Schumann's important life.

(MUSIC UP) I'm not nearly done with this excellent book. We'll meet here again, talking about Schumann over a tall glass.

(MUSIC) As always, transcripts of Words on Books are available through the KZYX web site.

Notes:

Robert Schumann, Life & Death of a Musician" by John Worthen. Oxford University Press hardcover $40. ISBN 9780300111606.

Although you can find Schumann all over the Internet, and there have been innumerable biographies, articles, essays, etc. about him and his closest friends, much of what you can find on Schumann the man is based on extrapolation, misinformation, or just plain meanness (Clara's father came to loathe Schumann, disapprove of the marriage, and wrote a book that included many canards about the composer. The Grove Dictionary of Music describes Wieck as "more and more irrational, extending to the most spiteful attempts at slander and sabotage"). I'd suggest you read this highly absorbing book before delving into other sources.

While writing this WOB I had the great pleasure of listening to the 1985-6 recording of Yo Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax playing Schumann's Fantasiestucke Op. 73, the Adagio & Allegro Op. 70, Stucke in Volkston Op. 102, and (for appetizer) Schumann's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Op 129 with the Symphonie Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Wow.

This CD is out of print, but can be located, probably used, on the Net. Look for "Schumann Cello Concerto" on Sony Classical SK-42663. You probably could Google just the SK number and find it. Yo Yo Ma does not always record the very finest version of pieces over his admirable career, but this disk is absolutely one of his very best. Inspirationally excellent.

Tony Miksak
Words on Books: http://www.gallerybooks.com/bkm/index.html
personal home page: http://amiksak.googlepages.com/home

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