Clara Wieck, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms – inseparable partnership and union

This written commentary is part of a larger portfolio of artistic research that I submitted for my DPerf degree. It includes three artistic projects and one development project. In all four projects, I aimed to highlight and reveal the extraordinary and profound interactions between the lives, creative ideas, and music of three extraordinary musicians – C. Wieck, R. Schumann, and J. Brahms. The centre figure for this journey was C. Wieck, whose role as a performer, composer, and muse remains underappreciated. Each of my projects is dedicated and focused on a particular personality and their significant influence on the other two, while emphasising their mutual impact and shared musical language. It is difficult to imagine the compositional styles – and indeed much of the output - of R. Schumann and J. Brahms without the influence of C. Wieck and the pivotal role she played in their lives. The first Artistic Project centres on C. Wieck’s Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 7, which I performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. This performance challenged me both technically and emotionally and deepened my understanding of her music. The second project was a solo recital based on variations by all three composers around a shared musical theme, highlighting the intertextual references on how they qouted and responded to one another’s ideas. The third project was a piano duo recital with my wife Eglė Šarmavičiūtė-Rudokė, where we performed four-hand and two-piano arrangements of R. Schumann’s and Brahms’ chamber music, rediscovering this repertoire from an intimate and collaborative perspective. The Development Project was a reimagining of R. Schumann’s Dichterliebe as a collaborative and interdisciplinary performance that brought together piano, voice, and modern ballet. Working with ballet dancers and a singer has given me a unique opportunity to present a fresh perspective on how this music can be experienced and interpreted on stage. Throughout this portfolio, I have aimed to combine academic research and historical knowledge with emotional engagement in the musical performances. In my written commentary, I discuss about my rehearsal strategies, analyse technical and expressive choices, and summarise how the emotional qualities of the music have shaped my interpretation. This has been a deeply personal journey, not only into the music of the TRIO, but also into my own development as a performer, collaborator, and researcher.