SCHUMANN

 

Humoreske Op. 20

Studien fur den Pedalflugel Op. 56

Gesange der Fruhe Op. 133

 

Piotr Anderszewski

 

For this new recital, Anderszewski turns his attention to some of Schumann’s less frequently performed works. The Humoreske of 1839, far more serious-minded and substantial than its name might suggest, is built in five discrete sections. Mercurial in it shifts of mood, it reflects the composer’s report to his wife Clara that, while working on the piece, he was “laughing and crying, all at once”.

 

The Gesänge der Frühe date from 1853, the year before the composer’s attempted suicide, and form his last completed work for piano. Terse, introspective and harmonically adventurous they are expressive of the mood before sunrise.

 

By contrast, the Six Studies in Canon Form are lyrical and unobtrusively contrapuntal. Schumann composed them for the pedal piano which, like an organ, had an extra set of notes played with the feet; an example of the instrument is on display at Schumann’s birthplace in Zwickau. Anderszewski himself has adapted the pieces for the range of the modern piano and for ten fingers rather than two hands and two feet.

 

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