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Why did you choose to couple the
Fantasie
with
Kreisleriana
?
It’s a personal choice that corresponds to a period in my life. After my Chopin disc,
I felt the need to explore thismusic againwith the intentionof recording it and setting
down my own vision of the moment, particularly in the case of the
Fantasie
. I really
did immerse myself in a close reading of this masterpiece, which I never allowed out
of my sight; even when I was travelling, I always had it in my luggage. I had already
started to work again on
Kreisleriana
, which I had known for a long time, and four
years ago I got the urge to add the
Fantasie
in C major to my repertory. I think it’s a
work that demands an implication over and above simple fidelity to the score. What
stupefies me is the state of intense excitement in which Schumann found himself
in the years between 1835 and 1840, which led him to build up such a large and
immediately identifiableœuvre for piano. The
Fantasie
occupied him for a whole year,
which shows how committed he was to it.
This was a period when such geniuses as Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn and, of course,
Schumann frequently met up with each other. At the height of the Romantic
movement, each of them possessed his specific modes of expression, which grew
out of simple propositions. Chopin appeals to me for his modulations, his phrasing,
hismastery of rubato, his bel canto character, his harmonies; Liszt for theway he sets
his life tomusic with complete transparency; but Schumann remains amystery in his
very contrapuntal logic, where the form resembles nothing else. It’s like a puzzle! My
intention, in the
Fantasie
, falls on the dichotomy between Eusebius and Florestan,
and I focus more on that cry of love which passes rational understanding. In a sense,
you have to put yourself in the position of someone deeply in love who, through
the agency of this music, is genuinely transported to the point of frantic passion,
while at the same time taking care not to let yourself get drawn too far into the
entanglements of the inner parts. Because, if you don’t keep your feet on the ground,
you run the risk of being carried away onto paths with no way back!
SCHUMANN_Fantasie & Kreisleriana