Navigate the eccentricities and literary associations at the heart of Robert Schumann's piano music with this short and practical guide.

Schumann is one of the most literary of Romantic composers, with highly technically challenging and perplexing piano music. Maria Razumovskaya cuts through myths to offer a view of how and why Schumann's ordinary lived experiences define his music and how that can be used to create more striking performances.

Schumann speaks in his piano music through many masks and voices. His desire was to live the life of a novel and transform chapters of his life into the language of music. His piano compositions are his most vulnerable personal moments: from his feelings of being an imposter pianist, professional setbacks, self-inflicted obstacles, courtships, moral dilemmas, to his distressing psychotic episodes that ultimately led to his incarceration into a mental hospital. Intricate symbolism and cultural cross-references make the task of interpreting his piano works daunting.

Explore how Schumann's obsessions, devotions, rejections, scandals, illnesses, and ambitions are embedded – both physically and symbolically – in his approach to the piano, including in his infamous technical challenges and impossible performance directions. These remarkable and practical insights illuminate ways for pianists to engage more deeply with his works.