Grades 8-12, College, Adult
Directed by Steve Ruggi
Produced by Rhombus Media
DVD Purchase $79, Rent $45
US Release Date: 1997
Copyright Date: 1996
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-944-5
VHS ISBN: 1-56029-726-3
Subjects
Composers
European Studies
History
Humanities
Music
Performing Arts
Awards and Festivals
Nominated, Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival
DESIRABLE: California Instructional Clearinghouse
Cellist Steven Isserlis investigates the final years of Schumann's life.
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"There is a lot of beauty in this film. Recommended." Library Journal |
SCHUMANN'S LOST ROMANCE is a musical detective story in which cellist Steven Isserlis investigates the intrigues of the final years of Robert Schumann and his wife, Clara. Towards the end of his life Schumann composed five romances for cello and piano, which Clara destroyed before they could be published.
Isserlis' passion about Schumann fires his quest throughout Germany to retrace the master's footsteps. Along the way he performs some of Schumann's most beautiful works with his friends Joshua Bell, Christoph Eschenbach, and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Interwoven with this personal journey are dramatic vignettes that shed light on the relationship between Robert and Clara over the last ten years of the composer's troubled life.
Reviews
"Interweaving dramatized flashbacks with present-day concert footage, interviews, and on-camera narration, this interestingly stylized program presents musicology as detective story...An engaging approach to music appreciation."
Booklist
"There can be no definitive explanation for the decisions of Frau Schumann, obviously, but she and her world are subtly re-created. There is a lot of beauty in this film. Recommended."
Library Journal
"The production qualities of the video are impeccable - recommended."
Rue Herbert, University of South Florida, MC Journal
"A work that is entertaining, informative, and beautifully photographed, Schumann's Lost Romance is a confidently recommended addition to any school or community library's video collection."
The Midwest Book Review