Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert - Downpatrick Recitals - Miah Persson, Joseph Breinl

Sean Rafferty presents the final Song Recital in this series from Downpatrick. The marraige of Robert and Clara Schumann produced one of the most creative partnerships of the nineteenth century. Both intended to become concert pianists and both were composers. However, Clara had a career as a brilliant pianist while Robert devoted his talents to composition. Today Miah Persson and Joseph Breinl perform songs by both Clara and Robert. They begin with songs from Myrthen which Robert compiled as a wedding present for Clara; then songs by Clara, some of which she presented to Robert on his thirty-first birthday; and they end with Robert's sublime Frauenliebe und leben which traces a woman's love and life from the distresses of adolescence, through marriage, motherhood and bereavement.