Schumann: Hausmusik, Works For Violin And Piano – Paolo Ghidoni

The struggle between momentary inspiration and the great Forms’ moral needs cost Schumann, in time, a fall into darkness. The Drei Romanzen op. 94 are no lyrical confessions, but rather Sonata-Forms which are compressed in the instant of their emersion into consciousness. The nature of Fairy-tale accompanied Romanticism as an absent-minded, unpredictable, at times evil sister. Märchen, the telling of a Fairy-tale, alludes to a double nature which is characteristic for the German soul. The spirit of Protestantism animates the Märchenbilder op. 113, which present themselves as an essential Symphonic Poem in four tableaux. The Adagio und Allegro op. 70 reveals Schumann’s attraction for Opera. The dialectics between lyricism and frantic actions, which is the soul of musical theatre, is resumed here, aphorism-like, within the short space of a dramatic gesture. The Fünf Stücke im Volkston op. 102 are inspired by an even more blatant autobiographic inspiration; they are already burdened with the feeling for an incipient insanity. Finally, the Drei Phantasiestücke op. 73, the “Fantasy pieces”, almost epitomize Schumann’s whole oeuvre: seeing eternity in an instant can be a blessing of time, or else the manifestation of mania. Schumann always knew that the latter was his own, in his music.