Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Schumann Moves to Dusseldorf

Schumann Moves to Dusseldorf

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Schumann Moves to Dusseldorf

Donald Macleod focuses on everyday life with the Schumanns in Dusseldorf.

Donald Macleod looks at the impact on Schumann of becoming Dusseldorf's director of music.

It was an offer Robert Schumann only wished he could have refused. But lacking other job opportunities, the composer reluctantly accepted Dusseldorf's offer of the post of Director of Music, with responsibility not only for a semi-professional orchestra, but also for a choir. All this week Donald Macleod looks at Schumann's Dusseldorf years and the creative stimulus this move provided for Schumann, his triumphs as well as his many failures. In less than five years, Robert would write some third of his entire output, composing concertos, choral works and symphonies. Despite the composer's tragic illness, he lost none of his powers of invention, and was indeed on the brink of enjoying both popular as well as critical success. 

In today's episode, Robert and Clara are feted with a grand reception and a concert of Robert's own music. Despite this promising beginning, there are already domestic problems: the familiar struggle to find suitable accommodation, away from barrel organs and other street noises. And already there are mutterings among the choir and some of the orchestra about Robert's abilities as a conductor and manager of people. 

Genoveva Overture, Op.81
New York Philharmonic 
Leonard Bernstein

Sechs Gedichte von Nikolaus Lenau, Op. 90 (Meine Rose; Requiem) 
Peter Schreier, tenor
Normal Shetler, piano

Myrthen, Op.25 (Widmung; Die Lotosblume)
Barbara Bonney, soprano
Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano

Das Paradies und die Peri, Op.50 (Part 2)
Monteverdi Choir 
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor.

Composer of the Week: Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores Schumann's time in Dusseldorf and creative stimulus it provided.

Donald Macleod explores Schumann's Dusseldorf years and the creative stimulus the move provided, as well as his triumphs and many failures.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Schumann Moves to Dusseldorf

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3