The tragic life and legacy of Robert and Clara Schumann have long interested Applied Music Instructor Christana Astrachan. This Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bowdoin Chapel, she and her partner, tenor Bruce Fithian, will perform "lieder" ("songs" in German) by the two great pianists and lovers, intermingled with excerpts of their letters and diaries read aloud.
They have titled the unique performance "Follow the Lieder."
"We tried to put together an oral picture of Clara and Robert's life and work," soprano singer Astrachan said.
Robert Schumann was a German composer and pianist and a representative of Romanticism in the first half of the 19th century. He was a disturbed and introspectively whimsical individual, as evidenced by his life story. His dramatic love affair with pianist Clara Wieck eventually led to marriage in 1839 against her father's will, and he later attempted suicide by throwing himself in the Rhine. Schumann later died in a mental asylum, due to alleged side effects of tertiary syphilis.
After Schumann's death, Clara went back to work as a concert pianist. She toured and performed her husband's work while raising their seven children, some of whom also became musicians.
Schumann's work is deeply personal. The intimate nature of his work, along with readings from the lovers' actual diaries and letters, enable Astrachan and Fithian to "let Robert and Clara speak in their own words," giving crucial insight to their inner workings as individuals and artists and Romanticism as a whole.
The performance will be a unique combination of human feelings as expressed through two very different media: prose and music. Two actors will read the original excerpts, Bruce Fithian will sing nine Schumann songs, and Astrachan will sing the ones written by his wife.
Astrachan became intrigued reading the diaries of Robert and Clara, which can be found in the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. She came across a book that told the story of the two lovers and their passion for music and each other. She hopes to communicate the idea and intensity of that passion to Bowdoin students.
The two performers and musicians are planning their next project to be a continuation of this one, which will incorporate romantic composer Brahms. The composer was allegedly romantically linked to Clara after the death of her first husband.