It's an awesome cycle, musical poetry at its best. Why it is not played more often, I don't understand. I am quite a keen concert visitor, but I cannot remember to have heard it. It's always Kreisleriana, Fantasy, Kinderszenen, Carnival, occasionally a sonata or the symphonic etudes. I can recommend Clara Haskil's recording.
Nothing else to say? Oh, I don't believe that such beautiful work doesn't captivate you.Has anyone here studied/played it?
To respond to Rachmaninova's request for more info I found the entry below on the web. It gives a fairly good summary of it. A salient feature of the Waldszenen is that it is the last piano work Schumann wrote before he became mentally ill. So, it's a mature work, very different from the cycles he wrote 10-15 years earlier. A commentator once said that he was already loosing his mental and creative powers when writing this cycle. But to me that's a typical expectation-driven comment like: "Why didin't he continue to write cycles like Kreisleriana, Faschingsschwank, Carnaval, Nachtstücke etc?" Well, he didn't. He changed, he evolved, he wrote something very different, special, and I would add - sublime. Compared to the early cycles, he often uses less notes to achieve more depth, such as in 3,4,& 7. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), Op. 82 (1848-49) consists of nine short pieces similar in style and spirit to the composer's Kinderszenen (1838). "Eintritt" (Entrance) features unusual, asymmetrical phrasing. "Jäger auf der Lauer" (Hunter in Ambush) is an exciting, technically challenging piece in the cast of a typical nineteenth century hunting song. The difficulties of "Einsame Blumen" (Solitary Flowers) lie in maintaing balance between the two distinct voices in the right hand; otherwise, it is simple and melodic. "Verrufene Stelle" (Haunted Spot) evokes an air of eerie mystery with passages in slow dotted rhythms, while the fast, tricky triplets of "Freundliche Landschaft" (Friendly Landscape) create a surprisingly poetic effect. "Herbege" (At the Inn) presents a variety of material that requires great sensitivity to balance. The best-known and most striking piece of the set is "Vogel als Prophet" (The Prophet Bird); its cross-relations, incomplete melodies, and extreme delicacy of texture create a weirdly beautiful atmosphere. "Jagdlied" (Hunting Song) is the second of the Waldszenen in this style and the example more typical of the genre. Rapidly repeated triplet chords both lend the piece rhythmic drive and pose a substantial technical challenge. The concluding "Abschied" (Farewell) is a touching song without words. Waldszen may rightly be regarded as Schumann's last really fine keyboard work. The diminishment of the composer's mental and emotional capacities in ensuing years led him to redirect his energies largely toward the compilation and revision of earlier works rather than the production of new music.
I travelled from my home in England to Prague during October in order to see Artur Pizarro play Waldscenen, Bach's Chromatic F&F and sonatas by Vorisek and Chopin. I have been playing the Schumann on and off for years and consider it a masterwork along with the Allegro in B minor and Faschingsswank aus Wien. I have never understood why these are not heard more often in recital when we are constantly treated to bad performances of the C Major Fantasy by pianists who can't play quietly,have an ugly fortissimo and who can't get the dreaded 'skips' right! My journey was well worth it-Pizarro is one of the best pianists around at present. His ideas in Waldscenen contrasted markedly with my own in places, so I learned a lot from his excellent performance. Congratulations to an artist who will plan and play a programme which is out of the ordinary. Incidentally-there is a set of 'Forest Scenes' Op.66 by English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor that I play-however, they are uneven, nowhere near as good as Schumann's, though number 1 has been well received when I've given it as an encore.
Topic: Schumann's Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) Op. 82 