Schumann: Album für die Jugend, Op. 68

Robert Schumann (Composer), Rico Gulda (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Rico Gulda
• Composer: Robert Schumann
• Audio CD (October 16, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00005NUOS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,656 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music from a child's point of view, September 17, 2002

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schumann: Album für die Jugend, Op. 68 (Audio CD)

Who could resist the charms of this collection of short pieces about children, written for children? Schumann started writing them for his eldest daughter's seventh birthday and before he finished he'd written 43 pieces, in two parts. The first section is called 'Für Kleinere' ('For the Littler Ones'), and the second 'Für Erwachsenere' ('For the More Grown-up Ones'). The pieces celebrate the innocence of childhood. Perhaps the most famous of these little gems is 'Fröhlicher Landmann' ('The Happy Farmer', or 'The Merry Peasant'); how many beginning piano students have loved playing this one?

Schumann wrote quite a bit of music for children, but this doesn?t include another famous collection, 'Kinderszenen' ('Scenes of Childhood'), which he himself called 'reminiscences by a grown-up for grown-ups.' But other pieces for children include the 'Liederalbum für die Jugend' ('Song Album for Children'), 'Drei Klavier-Sonaten für die Jugend' ('Three Piano Sonatas for Children'), and a set of duets for children, called 'Kinderball' ('Children?s Ball'). He may have been the first great composer to capture in music the wonder, innocence, curiosity, sensitivity of children. Certainly, Bach, who wrote lots of music for his own children, was writing primarily for didactic purposes, and not from a child's point of view.

These performances are sparkling. Rico Gulda, son of the legendary pianist Friedrich Gulda, presents these pieces straightforwardly, cleanly, musically, and with great joie de vivre. The recording is very lifelike.

Recommended.