Wild & Mild

Featuring

Jimin Oh-Havenith
Robert Schumann

Did you know?

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded in October 2023 at Konzerthaus Liebfrauen, Wernigerode, and features a Bösendorfer 280 piano.

Compositional Technique

Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9, uses cryptograms based on the German town of Asch (now Aš), the birthplace of his fiancée Ernestine von Fricken, which also encode his name and refer to Ash Wednesday.

Composer Biography

Robert Schumann's ambition to become a great piano player was thwarted when his middle finger became paralysed after using a mechanical contraption for practice.

Compositional Technique

In the first edition of Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, Robert Schumann replaced his name on the title page with his literary alter egos, Florestan and Eusebius, and included verbal transitions by a narrator figure in the musical text.

Composition History

The piano works on this album, Carnaval and Davidsbündlertänze, were part of a 'piano period' (c.1830-1840) during which Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck used pieces to exchange coded messages.

Composer's Artistic Vision

For Robert Schumann, the son of a bookseller, literature was as important as music, with authors like E.T.A. Hoffmann and Jean Paul holding similar significance to Bach and Beethoven in his intellectual world.