Customer Reviews

Schumann: Album für die Jugend, Op. 68

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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.