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Curiously enough, it’s Liszt who is the dedicatee and not Clara, even though
everything in it converges on her. It’s possible that the work was beyond
her technically, although she was nevertheless an excellent pianist. Even
today, you still have to throwyourself body and soul into the hallucinatory
whirlwind of the first movement, and the second movement, marked
‘Moderate. Extremely energetic’, with its succession of dotted rhythms
and formidable leaps in both hands, calls for great precision of attack.
Sviatoslav Richter said that it was better to shut your eyes in this acrobatic
coda to surmount the difficulties! In any case, the
Fantasie
opens up
infinite perspectives that one never stops exploring.
Kreisleriana
refers more to literature and reminds us that Schumann, a
great admirer of Jean Paul Richter, could have been a poet himself. Varied
landscapes run through his head, with lyrical moments and diabolic ones,
likesnapshots.Iseethisasasortofstimulatinggame;eachmoodisrendered
with a specific tonality. As always with Schumann, you have to look for the
inner life of the music. He revels in continually posing questions, spurring
the performer on, bringing out varied sonic perspectives. All of that
demands control, but there’s also feverishness, anger, and an immense
tenderness. The score was dedicated to Chopin, who didn’t understand
it, even hated it. Yet its splendour and musical profundity sometimes go
further even than anything Chopin ever envisaged.