Some weeks ago I relentlessy pointed Schumann as one of the worst orchestrators among famous composers. Damn sure he was. And an awful conductor as well, as much as we know. He probably viewed the orchestra as a sort of electronic organ he could turn ON/OFF and change some presets and that's all.

It's worth hearing his orchestral works anyway since the genius of this guy always makes its way out to our bleeding ears.

See? Not bad at all. This guy makes MUSIC. A lot of it is for piano since he was a promise piano virtuoso, before wrecking his hand permanently by allegedly using a homemade mechanical device to strengthen his fingers. He thought "Oh shit. Well, here I start my composing career". And he did, to our ear's pleasure.

Schumann was a true romantic, profiting from the small things in life and was really devoted to his wife Clara, he met when she was only 15. Her father didn't like the idea so he tried to forbid them to marry, but they did it anyway after a fierce long legal battle. They had 8 kids! He admired and enjoyed infancy and the learning process, leaving some very famous advices for young students that are both charming and elucidating of Schumann's character.

About infancy, you probably already know this "scenes from childhood" thing:

Clara became his inspiration, his confident, and because he would stay hours in cafes just to see her before her concerts, he wrote an astonishing number of songs (lieder) he divided in song-cycles. Those are true masterworks, man. Choosing poems from famous poets such as Goethe, Heine and others, it was basically about love, love, love, nature, infancy, pain, a little bit more of love, love, love, rejected love, death, loss, nostalgia, and finally some more love, love, and love. A true romantic man.

He's like:

The rose, the lily, the dove, the sun,
I loved them all once in love's bliss.
I love them no more, I love only
The Small, the Fine, the Pure the One;
I love only them.
She herself--the source of all love--
IS the rose, lily, dove, and sun
I love only that which is small,
Fine, pure--the one, the ONE!

As required to an ultra-romantic composer, Schumann had several melancholic depressive episodes starting at the age of 23, alternating between an incontrollable exaltation and delusional ideas of being poisoned by metallic items and hearing angelic voices and musical notes in his head that were sometimes replaced with demoniac visions. He even wrote some music from a theme he thought to hear in those dreams. He slowly became completely insane and attempted suicide by drowning himself on the Rhine river in 1854, after which he asked to be taken to an asylum where he died two years after.

I must confess, I love this guy's music. He wrote some wonderful music for cello as well and I always have the feeling his music is a sort of notebook of his psycho-complicated-depressive nature and thoughts. I feel his musical phrases begin way before the sound, like if he was already composing in his head and writing was just an extension of his thoughts. An example is his cello concerto, which is my absolute favourite.

_{Steven Isserlis is an amazing Schumann player, in my opinion!}

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