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Press
Reviews |
Beloved
Clara
- “This is a beautifully put - together portrait
of one of classical music’s most romantic
and tragic marriages and it’s every bit as
glamorous and star crossed as Romeo and Juliet.
Brahms’s description of Schumann’s
death, with Clara kneeling by his bed is almost
unbearably moving. Kleenex required.
THE GUARDIAN – AUDIO BOOK OF
THE WEEK – 24/05/08
- On their wedding day in 1840, the composer Robert
Schumann presented his bride Clara with a diary,
proposing that they both use it to record the
hopes, fears and events of their marriage. On that
happy
day, how could they know that only 16 years
later he would have gone insane and died, and she
and
her seven children would have been abruptly
deserted by the young Johannes Brahms, their protégé and
friend? Moving extracts from the diary and their
letters tell the tragic story. Martin Jarvis and
Joanna David perform with touching sensitivity,
and pianist Lucy Parham provides another eloquent “voice”,
playing the music that all three composed in
the turmoil of their passionate lives. Executed
with
talent and flair.
THE SUNDAY TIMES - AUDIO BOOK OF THE WEEK
- 30/09/07
- Beloved Clara can be seen live on stage with
the actors and Parham, but for those not fortunate
enough to hear it live, this well-produced disc
gives and hour-long reflection on the three musicians.
The music is played with tenderness, respect for
the composer and devoid of any idiosyncrasies by
Parham, not least thanks to some well-chosen music
examples, played with tenderness, respect for the
composer and devoid of any idiosyncrasies. Readings
from the diaries and intimate letters are delivered
with great flair and authority by the actors Joanna
David and Martin Jarvis. If you only get a very
short snapshot of the Schumann Pianos Concerto,
you can hear Parham play it complete on her ASV/Cirrus
Classics recording and if you want a recording
close to what Schumann had in mind, this is a fine
recording to go for.
PIANIST MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED CD
PIANIST MAGAZINE October 2007
- “The
readings combine
great dignity
with a delicate
poignancy. The
changing moods
of the Schumann
and Brahms repertoire,
from the capricious
and turbulent
to the reflective
and haunting,
are deftly interpreted
by Lucy Parham.
The whole is
an intimate portrait,
with the passions
of the presenters
as palpable as
those of their
subjects.”
THE OBSERVER - 29/07/07
- This is a concert programme that has proved popular,
and the sequence of piano pieces (all solos, except
for the opening splash of Schumann’s Piano
Concerto, done with the BBC Concert Orchestra under
Barry Wordsworth) and readings builds up a moving
picture of the life of Schumann, his pianist-composer
wife, Clara, and Brahms. It is a tragic tale: Schumann
went mad, Brahms’s passion for Clara was
unfulfilled. The music of all three is heard, along
with a piece by Mendelssohn. Parham puts across
her sensitive choice of 15 short items feelingly,
and the narrators are excellent. The texts move
from open-heartedness into ever more troubling
complexity.
Paul Driver
THE SUNDAY TIMES - 22/07/07
- Lucy Parham is one of the finest Schumann exponents
around. But rather than record a straight recital
on this occasion, she has chosen to weave a set
of sublimely played miniatures by the Schumanns,
Brahms and Mendelssohn against the background of
the love triangle that was Robert and Clara Schumann
and Johannes Brahms. Using the composers’ private
diary entries, as read by Joanna David and Martin
Jarvis, it’s the kind of thing that could
easily stumble on the path of good intentions,
yet everything is so compellingly presented that
one can hardly help but become wound up in the
narrative
Julian Haylock
CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE
**** (four stars)
- All three performers are given a satisfying amount
of good material into which to sink their teeth.
The music is well chosen and played with an exquisite
touch and stylistic empathy by Parham.
GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE– August
2007
Schumann
Piano Sonata No.2 in G minor, Op.22, Kreisleriana,
Op.16, Papillons, Op.2 -
Lucy Parham (piano)
- "Finding a satisfying course
between the 'Florestan' and 'Eusebius' (the former
an outward-going, robust
figure, the latter a subdued introspective)
in Schumann's complex creative personality is one
of the greatest
challenges faced by any pianist. Three cheers
for Lucy Parham, then, who manages to characterise
these
keyboard classics without resorting to pianistic
hyperbole. By keeping everything within sensible
interpretative parameters Kreisleriana's neurotic
changeability and the stylistic flutterings
of Papillons are made to cohere more convincingly
than usual.
This is a charming recital."
ASV CDDCM 4501
Julian Haylock
CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE
- This is a well-recorded and well-played disc
that can join the list of great Schumann interpretations
and give pleasure to aficionados of Schumann’s
piano music.
Parham has the right temperament for Schumann’s
two-sided musical personality, creating a spontaneous,
ebullient effect in the extroverted music, and
a sensitively phrased, warm effect in the intimate,
introspective music.
FANFARE (USA)
- Lucy Parham is a real Schumann enthusiast and
she has many virtues in this recording: clarity
of articulation, rhythmic sense and ability to
strike overall balance at the speeds and in the
moods she has chosen. She is a brave woman as the
competition in this repertoire is fierce. But there
is no doubting, anywhere, her strong feeling for
this music, her response to its kaleidoscopic moods,
particularly in the song-like movements, to Schumann’s
peculiar combination of potency and secrecy. She
is equally persuasive.
Piers Burton-Page
INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW
Schumann Festival 2006
Ivan Hewett reviews the Schumann Celebration at Cadogan
Hall
- Amid all the Mozart hullabaloo, the 150th anniversary
of Schumann's death has so far gone unnoticed.
But then Schumann's music has always been bad box-office.
His is a quiet, musing voice, without the barnstorming
virtuosity of Liszt or Chopin. And it's not always
easy to understand, with its mix of "hobgoblin" fantasy,
Romantic effusiveness and domestic cosiness.
So
it was a brave move on the part of pianist Lucy
Parham to conceive this weekend celebration
of Schumann's music, which included a big-scale
orchestral concert from the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra as well as a song recital and a chamber
concert from cellist Natalie Clein.
And there
were interesting ancillary events exploring Schumann's
later lapse into madness,
and the tangled relationship between Schumann,
his pianist/composer wife Clara, and the "young
eagle" who descended on their domestic cosiness,
Johannes Brahms.
The weekend began with the nearest
thing Schumann ever wrote to a popular favourite,
his A minor
Piano Concerto. Parham was the soloist, and she
brought out the quicksilver changes of mood and
subtle detail of the piece in a touching way
- certainly more so than the orchestra under
Barry Wordsworth, which seemed staid in comparison.
Fortunately,
they came alive in the following piece, Mendelssohn's
incidental music to Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a shrewd move
to programme this sure-fire hit, but it made
good sense artistically, too, as it revealed
Schumann's extraordinary tone of voice with unusual
vividness.
Compared with Schumann, the nocturnal
aspect of Mendelssohn's piece is unthreatening
and literally "enchanting" -
especially here, as Mendelssohn's music was performed
complete with the appropriate Shakespeare texts,
delivered with pearly precision by the actress
Joanna David.
" Jack shall have Jill, Nought shall go
ill," said she, as the horns gave their
gentle benediction, and for a minute that happy
vision really seemed possible.
The next night,
in a marvellous recital of songs by Mendelssohn,
Schumann and Brahms, we heard
Schumann's altogether more sinister vision of
night in Muttertraum ("A Mother's Dream"),
in which a black raven hovers like a ghoul near
a sleeping infant's cradle. This was one of Schumann's
Goethe settings, rarely heard because their language
is so elusive and strange.
Mezzo-soprano Anne
Murray and baritone Stephen Roberts beautifully
captured the stark and tragic
mood of these songs, though it was the beautiful
way accompanist Terence Allbright played the
tiny, pregnant postlude to each song that made
the experience truly profound.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
BBC Concert Orchestra USA Tour / Wordsworth
/ 2002
- "Pianist Lucy Parham shared with
violinist Nicola Loud a light, unforced sound
and softly shaped tone, though in Schumann's Piano
Concerto,
she offered a far more sculpted, poetically flowing
performance."
NEW JERSEY STAR
- "Her performance was fiery, muscular
and determined" (Rhapsody in Blue)
DAYTONA BEACH
NEWS, FLORIDA
- "Pianist Lucy Parham did an excellent job
with Grieg's Piano Concerto. Her phrasing worked
well
with the light, playful feeling of the orchestra
around her. Parham is a team player. Although
she ended her passages with an arabesque flourish
she
kept her eyes on Wordsworth. She got a standing
ovation. Lucy Parham is the reason I gave up playing
the piano."
PRESS
AND SUN BULLETIN, NEW YORK
- "The evening's virtuoso offering
was soloist Lucy Parham in Schumann's Piano Concerto.
Although her sense of the music's passion and
warmth was there in abundance, Parham also unveiled
larger
issues. With its shimmering show of shifting
accents, her reading allowed the composer's innovative
musical
language to stand on its own. In the process
she focused attention on Schumann's pivotal role
in establishing
a process of dazzling disarray that would later
be termed Romanticism.
This was no easy task. The reckless
beauty of Schumann's only piano concerto is irresistible,
but also challenging
to the soloist. His writing disguises its demands
- the radiance and barely suppressed urgency
can be difficult to convey, but Parham surmounted
these
energetically.
Key to her success was the meticulous
care with which she separated the voices when
the material
required it. This performance was an example
of patent musicianship.
WORCESTER TELEGRAM, MASS
- "Lucy Parham’s performance was a rollicking
success" (Rhapsody in Blue)
WASHINGTON POST
Various quotes from the Press:
- “Lucy Parham was thoughtful, integrated and laconic.”
Rhapsody in Blue/RPO/Cadogan Hall, London
July 2007 Classicalsource.com
- "A highly gifted and sensitive musician.
This was playing of real artistry and stylistic
conviction."
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
- "It is a treat to hear playing in which
expressively, nothing is extraneous and everything
is at a high
level of intelligence and imagination. Her Schubert
and Frank were characterised by big-boned playing
and thinking."
THE TIMES
- "A most impressive performance, both witty
and technically brilliant."
" Two wonderful hours of Schumann by pianist Lucy Parham."
THE
GUARDIAN
- "Lucy Parham played with truly delicate
grace."
" She
gave a dazzling version of Debussy's L'isle joyeuse
which she sailed through with considerable
energy, and in the Rachmaninov she gave herself
up to the sonorous warmth of this big-boned music,
and
made us much readier to face the wintry night
outside."
THE
INDEPENDENT
- "Pianist Lucy Parham helped to make the
penultimate concert in the Halle Proms one of the
most memorable
nights of the season. In Beethoven's Third Piano
Concerto we were treated to piano playing at
its most vibrantly romantic, encompassing the full
range
of the keyboard with expressive ardour. The audience
revelled in the soloist's crisp artistry from
the dreamy eloquence of the Second Movement to
the fiery
fleet-fingered finale."
MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS,
HALLE PROMS
- "We're not good in this country at appreciating
'home-grown talent'. Somehow even the most appreciative
public fails to expect English women pianists
to be fabulous Chopin players. Yet Lucy Parham
proved
that is exactly what she is, blending full-blown,
technicolour romanticism with sophistication
and intuitive intelligence."
PIANIST MAGAZINE, WIGMORE
HALL
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