21 MICHEL PORTAL ∙ MICHEL DALBERTO Let’s move on to the two works by Schumann. You chose the three Phantasiestücke, a word suggestive in German of both the imagination and fantasy. What kind of sound were you looking for in these pieces, Michel Portal? Michel Portal: Precisely, one needs to find an ‘open’ sound, a sound that at once sustained and broad, never narrow. Schumann invites us to travel, to discover a new space . . . What are the fundamental differences between the respective styles of Schumann and of Brahms? Michel Dalberto: The musical approach of the two composers, in terms of form and content, is fundamentally different. When you tackle Schumann, you can’t avoid studying the content, in other words, the inner meaning of the score. The form only becomes apparent once you’ve understood the content. With Brahms, the form, the architecture, comes first, as something completely natural. It is classically inspired and, as a result, extremely precise. It’s no coincidence that Brahms was a passionate devotee of early music and the works of Bach.
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