Open Data Service, University of Southampton

In the first of three concerts curated by Cordelia Williams, we pay homage to the musical partnership between pianist and composer Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim.

Joseph Joachim was one of the 19th century’s great violinists and most influential musicians. Having met for the first time in 1853 at a music festival, Clara Schumann and Joachim performed together on many occasions. Their recitals often featured Robert Schumann’s second violin sonata and Schubert’s fiendishly difficult and virtuosic Fantasy – both of which will be performed by Cordelia and Tamsin in this special concert, alongside Clara’s three Romances.

Clara’s Romances were first published in 1855. She wanted to offer Joachim a copy as a Christmas present, but was thwarted by the publisher’s delay. Joachim and Clara performed the pieces several times in public, once to the ‘completely ecstatic’ King George V of Hanover.

Mendelssohn, whose work we hear in an arrangement by a major violinist from the 20th century, conducted Joachim’s debut appearance at the age of 12 in London. The Morning Post’s critic described Joachim’s performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto as ‘… beyond all praise, and defies all description.’