Composed in 1835 or 1836, when she was 16 or 17 years old, Clara Wieck-Schumann's Soirées musicales, Op. 6, was published in 1836 by Hofmeister in Leipzig. In 1838, Hofmeister combined Wieck's Quatre pièces caractéristiques, Op. 5, with the six Soirées musicales and printed them together as the Soirées musicales: 10 Pièces caractéristiques. These were published, of course, under the name "Clara Wieck."

Despite her youth, Wieck had a firm command of compositional material, and it is clear from her pieces that she understood the formal and harmonic tendencies of Chopin and Mendelssohn. Her accelerated maturity was in part the result of the extended tours she had undertaken with her father.

The types of compositions in the Soirées musicales are typical of her previous publications, all of which are works for piano and single-movement works with titles and forms typical of the times: "Polonaise," "Caprice," "Valse," and "Mazurka," as well as sets of "Variations on a Theme" and character pieces with descriptive titles. Soirées musicales consists: "Toccatina," "Ballade," "Notturno," "Polonaise," "Mazurka," and "Mazurka." The set is dedicated to Henrietta Voigt.

The most individual aspects of Clara Wieck's Soirées musicales lie in the melodic lines and details. Her large-scale forms are clearly derived from those of other composers, alive and dead. The opening "Toccatina" is a test of digital dexterity, the central section of the piece consisting of sustained parts in the outer voices and accompanimental, moving eighth notes in between. This is framed by a leaping, frantic section in a "Presto" tempo and completely different key.

Perhaps the most inspired piece of the Soirées musicales is the "Notturno," in F major. The depth of feeling suggested by the long melodic line is remarkable for a 16-year-old composer. In a slow 6/8 time, the "Notturno" is in ABA form. Its first section features a rocking accompaniment in the left hand supporting a descending, single-line melody in the right. Chromatic descents in the bass add powerful pathos, while a few impressive flourishes mark the high point of the A section. In the B section a trochaic pulse begins in the left hand as the key shifts to the relative minor. The return of A is highly decorated and harmonically altered. The fourth piece, "Ballade," is harmonically rich with a dense texture. No. 5, "Mazurka," is a study in contrasts: fortissimo follows on the heels of pianissimo, and dotted-rhythm melodies give way to rapid, busy chromatic flourishes.

In his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik of September 12, 1837, Robert Schumann described Clara's Soirées musicales as boasting a "wealth of unconventional resources, an ability to entangle the secret, more deeply twisting threads and then to unravel them." Robert would later borrow the first two measures of Clara's G major Mazurka, Op. 6, No. 5, for the opening of the first of his 18 character pieces, Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, written in 1837. Also, Clara's Op. 6, No. 2 appears in Robert's Novelletten, Op. 21.

© John Palmer, Rovi