Schumann’s Violin Concerto in an arrangement for clarinet and orchestra and the Waldszenen for chamber orchestra are the latest works from arranger Andreas N. Tarkmann’s pen. Both shed new light on well-known works.

The Robert Schumann anniversary year in 2010 was a welcome opportunity for Andreas N. Tarkmann to immerse himself in the work of the romantic composer, resulting in the publication of two arrangements which offer a quite special perspective on the original works.

With Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto, kept under lock and key by Clara Schumann for decades, Tarkmann started by considering whether a quite different solo instrument could suit the work better than the violin. He came to the view that the solo part, with its intrinsic melodic sensitivity and its embedding in the orchestra, could be much more readily and vividly portrayed by a wind instrument than a string instrument. Quite a few turns of phrase and motifs in the solo part can be found in similar and characteristic ways in Schumann’s compositions for clarinet, so that a transcription of the solo violin part for this instrument was an attractive, exciting and at the same time valid undertaking. Naturally an exact note-for-note transcription of the solo part for a fundamentally different instrument was impossible, but it is astonishing how Tarkmann has managed to transform the Violin Concerto, by his brilliant technique as an arranger, into a convincing clarinet concerto. This new version could now fill the gap for a great romantic clarinet concerto.

The young, phenomenally talented clarinettist Shirley Brill from Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra rose to the challenge of this special “premiere”, delivering a convincing case for Schumann’s “Clarinet Concerto” in May 2011 in Chur with the Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra under Douglas Bostock.

In contrast with the late Violin Concerto, Schumann’s nine-movement Waldszenen are firmly established amongst his most popular works. This brilliant piano cycle portrays the various stations on a romantic ramble through the German forest in an extremely atmospheric way. The programmatic luminosity of the individual movements almost cries out for an orchestral scoring, and it is astonishing that such an arrangement has not previously existed. In his orchestration, Andreas N. Tarkmann decided on a scoring for romantic-sized chamber orchestra in order to ensure as authentic as possible a sound for the Schumann pieces.

How well this orchestration of Waldszenen functions with the romantic orchestral colours alone was demonstrated at the premiere by the Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra under Douglas Bostock in May 2011 in Chur. Commissioned by the orchestra, Tarkmann’s version for chamber orchestra is a welcome addition to the small number of original works in the romantic repertoire for medium-sized chamber orchestra. The scoring follows the model of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll; Tarkmann previously transcribed the “Waldweben” (!) and other works by the Bayreuth master for the same forces. These arrangements are also published by Cecilia Music Concept GmbH (distributor: Bärenreiter · Alkor).   

FGS
from [t]akte 2/2011
Trannslation: Elizabeth Robinson