Is Schumann Schmaltzy?

Robert Schumann – not an easy life! Through extreme efforts to improve his piano playing he ruined one hand. He was denied marriage for years to the woman he loved. Attempted suicide. May have contracted syphilis. Probably fell into the bi-polar vortex later in life and was institutionalised.

And a final kick in the guts: He never received the recognition he deserved while alive.

My father, the Chopin freak, dismissed him as ‘schmaltzy’

[Schmaltz definition: Noun: (Yiddish) Excessive sentimentality in art or music]

Is this schmaltz? – or beauty and sweetness, from the birth of the Romantic era?

You decide.

From Kinderszenen op. 15 Traumeriei – A series written for children? on behalf of children? – or a childlike appreciation of life?! This one in the series is one of Schumann’s most played piano pieces.

Kinderszenen op. 15 Traumeriei

 

Piano Quartet in E flat 0p. 47 andante-catabile

 

Carnaval op. 9 – eusebius

 

Here’s another track from the Kenderszenen series: Von fremden landern und menschen (of foreign lands and people)

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