Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/01/2006, uploaded on 02/03/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Published in 1834, Schumann's Toccata for piano well lives up to its name, demanding a pianist of exception technique. Taking its title from the Baroque toccata, or "touch piece," in which the primary focus was a display of a performer's technique, Schumann then infuses the piece with a wholly Romantic expression.

Cast in sonata form, the work opens with bold chords in a syncopated rhythm. The principle theme, announced in broken chords requiring a continuous rocking motion of the hands, begins the moto perpetuo of sixteenth notes. Little relief comes in the secondary theme, first heard in the left hand and then in octaves in the right. The development section is even less forgiving. From chords spanning more than an octave to the recurring passages written in octaves, the performer's abilities is brutally taxed. Even more so, from such extremities must come music! The syncopated chords herald the return of the first theme and, thus, the recapitulation. Unrelenting, the music pushes on as if out of sheer force before it seems to collapse just shy of its goal, concluding with full, yet quietly sounded, chords.