This recording features a Conrad Graf fortepiano from 1835, an instrument with a lighter action, leather-covered hammers, and lower string tension, producing a sound rich in upper harmonics.
Composer Biography
Schumann's intended career as a piano virtuoso was cut short by a problem with his right hand's middle finger, possibly exacerbated by a device called a chiroplast.
Performer Biography
Penelope Crawford, the fortepianist on this album, is internationally acclaimed as one of America's master performers on historical keyboard instruments.
Composer Biography
Robert Schumann, the composer, initially studied law at university but abandoned it to pursue a career as both a poet and a musician.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Schumann's music was strongly influenced by the ironic German novelist Jean-Paul, whose works featured sudden contrasts and interrupted episodes, characteristics Schumann adopted for his own compositions.
Composition History
Schumann's Op. 1, Abegg Variations, is based on a musical cipher derived from the surname of Mademoiselle Pauline, Comtesse d'Abegg, translating to A-B-flat-E-G-G.
Instruments
The Conrad Graf fortepiano used on this album was saved from being converted into a table by a Swedish school teacher who outbid another family at auction around 1940.
