ALC 0177 Schumann: Intermezzi, Op. 4 - Impromptus, Op. 5 - Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26

The programme of this album outlines a fundamental evolutionary arc in Robert Schumann’s (1810–1856) piano production, moving from the experimental audacity of his youth to the mature formal synthesis of his Viennese period.
Intermezzi, Op. 4 (1832) In the early 1830s, Schumann was grappling with a musical question of considerable weight: how—and if—it was plausible to approach the sonata form following the definitive experience of Beethoven. This explains why the Sonata Op. 11 and those of Op. 14 and Op. 22, though begun during this period, were only completed several years later. In the meantime, Schumann sought and found his unmistakable style in an "aphoristic" music, strongly influenced by the Romantic literature of the era, where "speaking figures" (figure parlanti) frolic like actors upon a stage. Thus were born Papillons Op. 2 and, shortly after, the Intermezzi Op. 4, which he himself defined as "longer Papillons."With this work, Schumann liberated the title of "intermezzo" from its traditional role of being "in between" larger compositions. He united them into a cycle of six standalone yet coherent pieces, woven together by literary and musical quotations—some overt, others concealed. A notable example is the reference to Schubert’s Lied Meine Ruh' ist hin in No. 2, which Schumann explicitly marked in the score. In the Intermezzi, Schumann’s two alter egos, Florestan and Eusebius, are clearly evident both in the alternating characters of the six pieces and within the individual movements themselves through the use of "alternatives"—sections that stand out within the A-B-A structure with a character contrasting that of the A section.