Intermezzo from "F.A.E Sonata"
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau
Died July 29, 1856, Endenich

In the final years of his brief life, Robert Schumann served as mentor to a number of talented young musicians, among them Joseph Joachim. In the fall of 1853 Joachim was on a concert tour and was scheduled to give the première of Schumann's Fantasie for Violin and Orchestra in Düsseldorf of October 27. In anticipation of that visit, Schumann proposed an unusual project to two of his protegés, Albert Dietrich (1829-1908) and Johannes Brahms, then only twenty years old: the three of them would write a collaborative violin sonata for Joachim, basing its themes on the notes F-A-E. Those three letters came from Joachim's personal motto "Frei aber einsam": "Free but lonely." Dietrich wrote the first movement, Schumann the second and fourth, and Brahms the third. Presented with the sonata on his arrival in Düsseldorf, Joachim was asked to play the four movements of what was now called the F.A.E Sonata and to identify the composer of each. He is reported to have played the music easily at sight (Clara Schumann played the piano on that occasion) and to have correctly guessed the composer of all four movements.

The subsequent history of this collaborative sonata was varied. Dietrich's movement essentially vanished. Brahms set his movement, a scherzo, aside, and its history is described in the next program note. For his part, Schumann recognized that his two movements constituted half a violin sonata. He discarded the movements by Dietrich and Brahms and very quickly wrote two more movements of his own, and by October 31 he had completed what now became his Third Violin Sonata. This sonata, one of Schumann's final compositions, has never become a part of the repertory; four months later, Schumann attempted suicide and was placed in the asylum where he would spend the final two years of his life. The original F.A.E. Sonata was not published until 1935, long after everyone involved in the project was dead.

This recital presents the Intermezzo from the F.A.E. Sonata-and from Schumann's Third Sonata. Very brief (just over three minutes in length), this movement might almost serve as a textbook example to illustrate the term "romantic." Over quietly-rippling piano accompaniment, the violin sings the main theme, built on three-note phrases. Schumann's music is rich, expressive, gentle, and dark, and it soon draws to a quiet close.