So... what's so great about Schumann?

[hodi]

 

[thalbergmad]

Nothing

[Kassaa]

Nothing

Everything.

[crazy for ivan moravec]

harmonies

[arensky]

melodies

[al]

textures

[arensky]

hemiolas

[alwaystheangel]

one word answers don't cut it, guys, even though there are too many of theses

[JCarey]

one word answers don't cut it, guys, even though there are too many of theses

true

[crazy for ivan moravec]

clara

[arensky]

Kreisleriana

[florestan9]

2 words: Etudes Symphoniques
 

[crazy for ivan moravec]

dichterliebe

[gonzalo]

Carnaval

[pianistimo]

musical poetry.  miniatures.  catching the essence of an idea.  honesty.  germanic feel.

[presto agitato]

He invented a new style, his music is unique and his melodies are brillant

[Motrax]

Papillons!

[hodi]

PIANO CONCERTO IN A MINOR OP.54!

[da jake]

At first, I didn't get what all the fuss about Schumann was either.

Schumann wrote a lot of trash. Personally, I consider his Piano Concerto (stupid last movement) and Symphonies plain mediocre. Papillons, Carnaval, Blumenstuck, Davidbundler.. are all so-so works.

However, he wrote a few masterpieces that justify his position as one of the great 19th century composers.

Here are a few of my recommendations

Fantasie (a few excellent recordings by Richter)
Symphonic Etudes (Moiseiwitsch, Richter)
Sonata 3 (Horowitz)
Presto Passionato - finale of G minor Symphony (Old Horowitz recording from 30s)

[etudes]

Sonata op.22
Symphonique Etudes op.13
Allegro op.8
Concerto op.54
TOCCATA RULES

[etudes]

i forgot Kreisleriana op.16 Fantasie op.17

[piazzo23]

Schumann wrote a lot of trash. Personally, I consider his Piano Concerto (stupid last movement) and Symphonies plain mediocre.

You need to be a musician to appreciate Schumann.

[da jake]

Honestly, the last movement Schumann concerto is a joke. It's music for people who have bad taste and can't discern between good music and crap. It reminds me of a fat German butcher in lederhosen walking down the street of an alpine village handing out  sausage links to the neighborhood children he meets.

[mikey6]

You need to be a musician to appreciate Schumann.

I was gonn say hes fulla...trash but me thinks that's a better attack.
Honestly, if you don't like something, can't you jsut say I don't like it instead of insulting the work?  it's cliched but da jake - you right something betetr and then show it to us (so we can bad mouth it

[alejo_90]

Oh please ! Not another one of these threads !!

Honestly, if you don't like something, can't you just say I don't like it instead of insulting the work?  it's cliched but da jake - you right something better and then show it to us (so we can bad mouth it

I second that.

Honestly, the last movement Schumann concerto is a joke. It's music for people whohave bad taste and can't discern between good music and crap. It reminds me of a fat German butcher in lederhosen walking down the street of an alpine village handing out  sausage links to the neighborhood children he meets.

So if I like Schumman's concerto that means I have bad taste and can't discern between good music and crap.

Yeah sure !
You are an A$shole you knew that?

[contrapunctus]

Schumann just doesn't have the thing.

[Mozartian]

Everything!

Melodies, textures, counterpoint, insane coolness, outrageous beauty.....

 

-moz

[Motrax]

Admittedly, I greatly dislike Schumann's piano concerto. However, his cello concerto is simply unbelievable, among other things.

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

I actually firmly do believe that Robert Schumann actually had It . Although I have not played alot of his works, just a couple of pieces from Album for the Young, I will have to say that it is difficult to surpass his level of imagination and just the brilliance of what he says. He evokes deep pictures through the miniature pieces. His Knecht Rurprecht is unbelievable. In such a short work he paints the whole pictures and leaves to the imagination. I evoke it as though a knight comes gracefully to the castle, where he rests(middle section), and then goes out again. His From foreign lands and people is also very beautifull. I also love his Fantastic Dance, which reminds me also of perhaps a baritone singing the dolefull melody, backed by an alto as a second voice in the right hand part. A very lovely and beautifull piece, one that cannot be just hammered away. Schumann's work perhaps isn't immediately noticable, but once one dwells deep into it, it is no less than other works. I have so far only played his little pieces, but definately look onto playing other ones too. In a way he reminds me of Bach, in romantic form. Bach's music is also involves complex harmonies and voices, which I think is akin to some of Schumann's harmonies. Again this is just my opinion. Just because one cannot instantly appreciate the composer, doesn't mean that one can hastefully shower down uneducated and harsh thoughts.

Best of wishes.

[crazy for ivan moravec]

You need to be a musician to appreciate Schumann.

oh yes, i agree.

the schumann concerto cannot be comprehended if you think a lot of the "bigger" concertos like liszt, prokofiev or rachmaninoff because although the latter ones do have good music in them, virtuosity still leads the way. it's difficult to make schumann concerto sound good and effective because you're left only with pure music. no matter how much you try to convince people that it's d@mn difficult and unpianistic, they just won't buy it coz the writing is very concise and direct. like mozart, the more simple it is, the more difficult to play.

sorry, Schumann rules!

[debussy symbolism]

I would also like to add that I love his A minor Concerto. I love the way he puts the melody through variations through out the concerto to evoke deep and sometimes conflicting feelings.

I would also like to appologize for my sloppy writing.

Best of Wishes.

[frederic]

Honestly guys. what's going on here?! what is with all these "what's so great about"
 threads!?!?

[Mozartian]

sorry, Schumann rules!

Don't say sorry!

His works are usually so structurally complex, yet often retain a simplistic and elegant beauty (as in the case of kinders(c/z)enen, walds(c/z)enen, some of the davidsbundlertanze and novelletten, as well as of course the F#M romance); so effective under the hands of someone who "gets" his works.

I love kinders(c/z)enen in particular, it plays SO true to title- the first scene so full of interested wondering, the second so curious, the third so hilariously playful.. aahh.

Yay Schumann and his novel-like way of writing music!

[jas]

I won't bother waxing lyrical about how much I've grown to love Schumann's music. I'll just post this recording of Ende vom Lied from the Fantasiestücke op.12 (Argerich). I defy you all not to love it.
https://rapidshare.de/files/18115974/08_Fantasiestucke__Op._12__VIII._Ende_Vom_Lied.m4p.html

Enjoy. (You will. )

Jas

[contrapunctus]

I would maybe like Schumann better if he didn't rip all his melodies off Clara Wiek's work (for example: Kreisleriana and Davidsbundlertanze).

[pianistimo]

he was, in my mind, a completely authentic composer (as most all composer's borrowed something or other but completely change it and make it 'better').  if he was in love with clara, surely he would have asked if he borrowed - and she, being still in love with him at the time of her own death many years later - would have been bitter and saying 'remember the time he ripped off my tunes...what a bum.  glad he died young.'  he was so completely in love with her - that if they shared tunes it was as if they were writing poetry back and forth to each other.  it wasn't as if he couldn't think of his own tunes.

*bach did a lot of borrowing, too. does that make him a bum as well.

[contrapunctus]

*bach did a lot of borrowing, too. does that make him a bum as well.

Except Bach's most famous works don't contain borrowed melodies; we can't make that statement for Schumann.

[pianistimo]

maybe he did but changed them significantly so you couldn't tell that he had.  according to www.bach-net.org/articles.html  "in his youth, bach reworked music by the leading day composers:  johann adam reinken, giovanni legrenzi, and arcangelo corelli."  he fashioned fugues and keyboard transcriptions from their music...

if he started out composing this way and baroque music practice was ok with borrowing - we probably have a lot of church music that was old and reworked.  no problem with it in my opinion if it was the practice of the day.

i think what you are getting at is the originality of the composer.  because schumann was also original in what he did with the borrowings, i consider him just as much a composer as any other that also made 'arrangements' and 'transcriptions.'  liszt and chopin did it too.  actually to find a composer that didn't borrow would be surprising.

[pianistimo]

didn't bach use the dies irae?  and, i've got an article somewhere on musical borrowing of the baroque era.  ok.  in 'a history of the piano concerto' pg 74 'bach's earliest works in the concerto form are solo keyboard transcriptions and arrangements of violin concertos by vivaldi and others...the original models include nine by vivaldi, five by johann ernst, and one each by a marcello and telemann, while four remain unknown.'  the originals were adopted, adapted, and transformed into something new and different. (made more suitable for keyboard).

his brandenberg concertos are definately inspired by vivaldi but bach probably borrowed from himself (the sinfonia bwv 1046a) for the brandenberg #1.  schumann was equally inventive and yet entirely original in his 13th anniversary gift to clara of the 'introduction and allegro appasionato for piano and orchestra in G major, op.92.  op. 134 equally couples an allegro with a slow introduction and has a long cadenza.  schumann wasn't a slouch in composition is what i'm trying to say.

it is also interesting that both bach and schumann had their favorite violinists whom they composed directly for and according to their known talents.

[Barbosa-piano]

  Chopin is the piano's poet, and Schumann is the piano's storyteller.
 
  His music is astonishingly colorful- beautiful.

[medtnerian]

What about Schumann's Lieder? Fantastic music. I think those really made him one of the greatest Romantic composers, not necessarily his other work (of which most compositions are very fine too).

[cfortunato]

Schumann takes you someplace you haven't been, or bring you back to places you have.

If he wrote today, he'd be doing movie soundtracks.  Great movie soundtracks.