Classical Music | Piano Music

Robert Schumann

Kreisleriana Op. 16  Play

Jenny Q. Chai Piano

Recorded on 07/08/2012, uploaded on 12/06/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

This monumental work in eight movements, subtitled Phantasien für das Pianoforte, was dedicated to Frédéric Chopin.  Schumann’s music is at once lyrical and contemplative, fiery and impetuous. His interest in literature brought him to the writings of E.T.A. Hoffmann for inspiration for "Kreisleriana", a work composed in 1838 and revised in 1850.  Schumann was fascinated by Hoffmann's tales of Johannes Kreisler, a "crazy kapellmeister" who appeared in three of Hoffmann’s books.  These stories of art and madness are mirrored in Schumann's own later battle to maintain his creativity in the face of his deteriorating health and mental illness. (In 1854, he entered an asylum where he remained until his death in 1856.)  "Kreisleriana" is divided into eight sections which alternate between the lyrical and dramatic aspects of Schumann's writing, recalling Florestan and Eusebius, the two imaginary characters of Schumann’s inner vision representing his impulsive and dreamy sides.
 
Schumann used material from the eighth movement, "Schnell und spielend", for the fourth movement of his first symphony.  The score is a formidable test of the pianist's technique and musical imagination.      Jenny Q Chai

More from Jenny Q Chai:

In our busy 21st century world, we are bombarded with wanted and unwanted information about almost anything.

Some music is to be played only to oneself, and Kreisleriana is most certainly one of those pieces. In the Romantic era, filled with individuals who became increasingly gregarious and grandiose, Schumann remained a poet whose amorous and imprisoned soul conversed with its self.

Kurtág is another poet of the same type, his musical language remaining pure and intimate, regardless of the influence of the outer world. His contemporaries wrote music that was tied closely to politics and reactions to World War II, while Kurtág's music reflected his memories of friends. Les Adieux is a homage to Leoš Janáček, reflected in the title “Farewells in the Style of Janáĉek”. 

In today’s program, I chose Kurtág as a portal to Schumann’s personal world, in the hope that the intimacy and solitary poeticism will bring out something unlikely from the mundane world.