February 5, 2020 at 10:26am
By Olivia Flores Alvarez
Houstonia
https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-culture/2020/02/houston-symphony-s-new-schumann-festival-explores-the-composer-s-genius-and-mental-illness
ROBERT SCHUMANN WAS one of the Romantic era’s most prolific and gifted composers. He was also very likely bipolar, says Dr. Richard Kogan, artistic director of the Weill Cornell Music and Medicine Program in New York City.
“Schumann may be the best representative of genius and mental illness,” Kogan tells Houstonia, noting that many artists used creative expression to grapple with emotional disorders. “Schumann had very rapid mood swings but there was no language for that then. The feeling was that he was just one of those crazy artists from the romantic era.”
Schumann, of course, was much more than that—something the Houston Symphony explores in its first-ever Schumann Festival, which runs throughout the next two weeks. Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada has been the driving force behind the festival, which itself is an effort to shine a light on the complexity of Schumann’s creative process.
