Schumann Drei Romanzen op 94

[sarahlein]

What can you tell me about this work? It's for oboe(/violin) and piano.
I'll be playing the piano part with one of my students playing the oboe part.
I have found at least one recording on the internet (for free) so far and was trying to get some more backround info on it but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.
Can anyone help? It can be anything that you think is useful to know. Or links to take me there.
Also how do you go about doing your homework on pieces you're working on?

[celticqt]

Also how do you go about doing your homework on pieces you're working on?

Sorry I can't help you with this specific piece --  as to the other question, it depends on a few things.  If I've never played anything by a composer before (this week I started my first Schumann) I'll go to the library and read about them: Lives of the Great Composers by Harold Schonberg has good short biographies.  This helps me get into the composer's head, understand their culture, their life, things like that.  With Schumann, the whole Florestan/Eusebius thing threw me a bit. 

Of course I try to get a recording or two or three, and try to read about when/where/why the piece was composed.  Also I go to Dolmetsch's online music dictionary and look up any unfamiliar Italian words in the score itself (like "mancando").

Then I practice my butt off.  

[mrchops10]

A good resource for background is allmusic.com, which has short descriptions off many pieces, including some obscure ones. Also, you can google the name of your piece along with the phrase program notes--many symphonies and recital series post their program notes online. With the huge amount of information contained in the web, I'm sure you can find something.