Kreisleriana (Robert Schumann)

The Kreisleriana , opus 16, are eight parts for Piano composed by Robert Schumann in 1838, whereas the type-setter was 28 years old. The execution time is of approximately 30 minutes.

All bound by an affinity set of themes, they illustrate sometimes the calm one, sometimes the storm and reflect the surging character, if not morbid instability, of Schumann. They were made up at the time where Schumann was madly in love with Clara Wieck, nine year old pianist his junior: the father of the young girl wanted to then make failure with their union, conscious of the unstable character of the musician.

Perhaps the Kreisleriana express the interior conflicts of an enthusiast man and a woman one of the other, with the changing states of heart, but they are also the reflection of the passion of Schumann for the literary romanticism. They evoke indeed the character of fiction Johannes Kreisler drawn from works of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Like Kreisler, each part has two very different sections perhaps pointing out Florestan and Eusebius, both personanges imaginary created by Schumann itself, faithful representatives of contradictions which agitated it (impulsiveness and daydream).

1. Extrèmement agitated ,
2. Very close friend and not too fast - Intermezzo I (very sharp) - Intermezzo II (more animated) ,
3. Very agitated ,
4. Very slow ,
5. Very sharp ,
6. Very slow ,
7. Very fast ,
8. Fast and as while playing.

The Kreisleriana are regarded as one of the big bosses of work of the type-setter and, undoubtedly, which he wrote moreover in vain for the piano with his Fantaisie, COp 17 .

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