Piano Forum

Clara Haskil and Cortot play beautiful Schumann, as does Gilels. I will also admit to liking a lot of Pollini's Schumann as well. Argerich plays some good Schumann (her recordings of his chamber works are particularly wonderful). Cziffra rules at Schumann- he plays an AMAZING op. 26 Carnaval, and also check out the Schumann recordings of Kempff, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Demus, and Alvanis. The (unfortunately very few) recordings of Schumann that Kapell and Lipatti made are divine, and Fiorentino's Schumann is unbelievably satisfying- oh to play like he did...

Schumann is very flexible, I think his works are really open to a lot of different interpretations. Just think the pieces through, develop a vision of your own of them- I feel that they're very literary in a sense, and once I realized that it was much easier for me to interpret the pieces.

The notes themselves are often awkward and unpianistic to play, so be forewarned. You definitely will have to experiment with fingerings when learning his works. His works tend to have a lot of layers, and it can be difficult to bring the several layers out just right. It's a bit too easy to overpedal and lose the layers, resulting in an unpleasant mushy mess. So pedaling is also key- really listen to yourself playing, make sure you're playing it as you hear it in your head.

Enjoy your foray into German music! It's definitely my favorite musical nation.