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Sentimental Work: Frank Peter Zimmermann on Schumann’s Violin Concerto

2025-04-11T09:00:00

Phil_181011_074_SR cr Stephan Rabold

Although the German violinist came late to Schumann, the Violin Concerto remains one of his repertoire staples – and provides an insight into the composer’s fraught mental state

It took me a long time before I felt I understood Schumann. I was afraid I wasn’t mature enough for his music, so it was a long time before I felt I could approach it seriously. I was 27 when I first performed the Violin Concerto and it took some time for me to feel really in control of it. Schumann, especially in his later works, was attempting to combine music, literature and Romanticism…

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