Schumann: Piano Music Costanza Principe

• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Allegro in B Minor, Op. 8:
• 1 Schumann: Allegro in B Minor, Op. 8 12:43
• Romanze No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 28:
• 2 Schumann: Romanze No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 28 04:16
• Romanze No. 2 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 28:
• 3 Schumann: Romanze No. 2 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 28 04:24
• Romanze No. 3 in B Major, Op. 28:
• 4 Schumann: Romanze No. 3 in B Major, Op. 28 08:04
• Toccata in C Major, Op. 7:
• 5 Schumann: Toccata in C Major, Op. 7: I. Allegro 07:46
• 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 32:
• 6 Schumann: 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 32: I. Scherzo 04:28
• 7 Schumann: 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 32: II. Gigue 01:33
• 8 Schumann: 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 32: III. Romanze 03:57
• 9 Schumann: 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 32: IV. Fughette 02:23
• Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133:
• 10 Schumann: Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133: I. Im ruhigen Tempo 03:36
• 11 Schumann: Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133: II. Belebt, nicht zu rasch 02:12
• 12 Schumann: Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133: III. Lebhaft 02:32
• 13 Schumann: Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133: IV. Bewegt 02:17
• 14 Schumann: Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133: V. Im Anfange ruhiges, im Verlauf bewegtes Tempo 03:50
• Total Runtime 01:04:01

Info for Schumann: Piano Music

An impressive debut from a charismatic young pianist with a passion for Schumann.

It was at a recital by Enrico Pace, hearing Schumann’s Novellettes, that the 16-year-old Costanza Principe determined she wished to dedicate her energies to the piano. She had been studying the instrument since the age of six and playing in public since the age of seven, but these still underrated pieces of Schumann set her on a path that has since taken her past degrees at conservatoires in Milan and London, and a Wigmore Hall recital debut in 2016.

There is a certain inevitability to the presence of Schumann on her debut album – and not any Schumann, a standardrunthrough of Carnaval, Papillons and Arabesques, but much less familiar pieces that test the expressive reflexes of the most dedicated Schumann interpreter. Neglected ever since Schumann composed it during his troublesome stay in Vienna (1838-1839), while away from but passionately attached to Clara, the collection of Scherzo, Gigue, Romanze und Fughette Op.32 was curiously never performed as a set during Schumann’s lifetime.

Written in 1839, the Three Romances Op.28 also suffered a troubled birth, as a Christmas present to Clara – the two now engaged – but one which he did not value sufficiently to dedicate to her. Yet under the hands of an interpreter as sympathetic as Costanza Principe, these pieces surge and swell with the composer’s uniquely impassioned and vulnerable voice.

She also includes pieces from the opposite ends of Schumann’s career: the tumultuous Allegro Op.8, a Beethovenian flexing of pianistic muscle from the 21-year-old composer; and the poignant collection of Gesänge der Frühe Op.133, composed five months before his attempted suicide and confinement within the asylum at Endenich. ‘Dawn-songs,’ Clara called them, ‘very original as always but hard to understand, their tone is so very strange.’ Inflected by a world-weary melancholy, as it may seem in retrospect, but with decades of writing for the piano distilled into a new simplicity of idiom.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was one of the most original piano composers of the 19th century. Trained as a pianist himself he created his own sound world in which he gave free reign to his often unbridled fantasy and imagination. His first 23 opus numbers are exclusively for piano solo. Schumann was the master of the miniature, the small form, the sketch characterising a person, a landscape, a mood or an idea. In his music he expresses the duality of his own romantic nature: his dreamy, introspective and lyrical side, against his fiery and passionate side.

This new recording presents some of Schumann’s lesser known piano works: the Allegro Op. 8, Drei Romanzen Op. 28, the late Gesänge der Frühe, the Scherzo, Gigue, Romanze und Fughette Op.32 and the famous Toccata Op. 7.

Costanza Principe was born in Italy in 1993 and started playing the piano aged 6. After graduating from the Milan Conservatory in 2010 cum laude she obtained her Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours at the Royal Academy of Music. She followed master classes with Franco Scala, Pascal Devoyon, Boris Petrushansky, Byron Janis, Boris Berman, Natalia Trull, Robert Levin, Alexander Lonquich and Steven Osborne. she played in many prestigious concert halls and festivals, such as Wigmore Hall in London, Verdi Hall, Puccini Hall, Milan Auditorium, Filarmonico Theatre in Verona, Serate Musicali, Ravello Festival, Steinway Hall in London and the Duke's Hall and David Josefowitz Halls in the Royal Academy of Music.

Costanza Principe, piano

Costanza Principe
Since her public debut aged 7, Italian pianist Costanza Principe has performed extensively in Italy, UK, France and South America both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Winner of several national and international competitions, such as the Lilian Davies Prize from the Royal Academy of Music, the second prize at the Beethoven Society of Europe Intercollegiate Piano Competition, the second prize (first not awarded) at the Premio Pecar International Competition in Gorizia, Italy, and the second prize at the Concours International de Piano in Lagny sur Marne, she made her debut with orchestra in 2008 playing three Mozart Concertos with the Filarmonici Europei Orchestra conducted by Aldo Ceccato.

She has appeared as a soloist with, amongst the others, the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Santa Fe, the Turkish National Youth Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro Coccia di Novara, the Melicus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, and she played in many prestigious concert halls and festivals in such as Wigmore Hall in London, Verdi Hall, Puccini Hall, al Verme Theatre, Milan Auditorium, Piccolo Theatre, Milan State and Bocconi Universities, Modern Art Gallery in Milan, Filarmonico Theatre in Verona, Fraschini Theatre in Pavia, Rossini Theatre in Pesaro, Muse Theatre in Ancona, Politeama Theatre in Palermo, Serate Musicali, Ravello Festival, Spazio Teatro 89, Lyceum in Florence, Cappella Paolina in Quirinale, Rome, Steinway Hall in London, Duke's Hall and David Josefowitz Halls in the Royal Academy of Music, Teatro 1ro de Mayo in Santa Fe (Argentina).

In 2012 she took part in the Beethoven Sonatas cycle organised by the Giovine Orchestra Genovese in Genova, Italy, playing 5 sonatas on 3 different early 19th century fortepianos, and she performed again on the Royal Academy’s Piano Gallery early pianos for its first Summer Piano Festival in 2014 and 2015. In 2016 she was involved in the Historical Pianist Conference-Festival events in Hatchlands Park where she performed William Sterndale-Bennett's Piano Sextet on a fortepiano.

Recent engagements include Costanza’s Wigmore Hall debut presented by the Kirckman Concert Society, as well as her London orchestral debut, as she performed Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto op. 16 with the Academy Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manuel Lopez-Gomez in the Duke’s Hall of the Royal Academy of Music; she also recently performed Rachmaninov Concerto n. 3 with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana at the Politeama Theatre in Palermo conducted by Gyorgy Rath, and she went on an Italian tournèe with the Turkish National Youth Orchestra conducted by Cem Mansur, performing the same concerto. In June she recently conducted and played Mozart Piano Concerto K415 from the keyboard, during the Royal Academy of Music Summer Piano Festival in London.

Her next engagements include a series of recitals and concertos in Italy, including Tchaikovsky Concerto n. 1 at the Dal Verme Theatre in Milan.

Her performances have been broadcast on Radio Classica, Italian TV and RaiRadio3; she also had masterclasses with Franco Scala, Pascal Devoyon, Boris Petrushansky, Byron Janis, Boris Berman, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Vsevolod Dvorkin, Natalia Trull, Robert Levin, Alexander Lonquich, Peter Bithell, Steven Osborne, Hung Kuang Chen, and Marios Papadopoulos.

Costanza Principe was born in Italy in 1993 and started playing the piano aged 6. After graduating from the Milan Conservatory in 2010 cum laude she obtained her Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton in 2015 and her Master of Arts with Dinstinction and the DipRam, the highest award for an outstanding final performance. Throughout her studies, she has been generously supported by the Liversidge Award, the Hilda Day Scholarship, he Winifred Christie Award and the Skyrme Hart Foundation. Winner of three consequent awards from the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund in 2013, 2014, and 2015 she is also the recepient of one of the Craxton Memorial Awards in 2015.

Currently she studies with Benedetto Lupo at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and, at the same time, she is pursuing a degree in Psychology at the Bicocca University of Milan.

Booklet for Schumann: Piano Music