Loving Schumann...
Original post by Yael Weiss on August 18th, 2005

As I prepare for my first CD recording of early and late piano works of Robert Schumann, I've been intrigued to come across an amazing range of very personal and widely varying opinions about the quality of Schumann's music. Obviously, I have chosen to record this music because I love it; but clearly not everyone does! Here are a few opinions to start off our Forum:

In the Press section of this website, you will find a review entitled, "Hidden Rhinestones." The writer makes his view already clear in the title, then goes on to claim that Schumann's music is not really "concert" music, that the way it is written makes it more appreciated by pianists than listeners.

On the other hand, pianist Joerg Demus, in the notes to his complete piano music recordings writes, "I have always felt - even when, as a child, I learned the first easy pieces from the Album for the Young - a great love and affinity for Robert Schumann."

Roland Barthes, in his insightful essay, "Loving Schumann," explores possible reasons for "why our period grants him [Schumann] an 'honorable' place - of course he is a 'great composer', but not a favored one."

Here is a quote from John Daverio's revelatory book, Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age: "I decided to write this biography in part to set aside some old myths - that Schumnn knew how to write short pieces but not long ones, that we can hear traces of his final illness in his later music - but also...to draw a portrait of a composer who was perhaps the first in Western musical history to view the art of composition as a kind of literary activity. And above all, I felt the need to repay a debt, a debt to an artist who has given me untold happy hours as a listener to and performer of his music. Loving Schumann may be a nostalgic and untimely avocation, but it exacts a price."

Now it's your turn! I would love to hear from you about your personal encounters with Schumann's music, whether you are a listener, performer, or both!.