Top 5 Favorite Schumann Works

[Sergeant Rock]

The four Symphonies and the Piano Concerto

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for participating guys. Interesting lists.

[Mirror Image]

I do like his chamber works but the invention & inspiration of his solo piano works (and lieder) is on another level. There's more of everything, especially experimentation. I find his chamber works more "conventional" in shape and scope, less apt to carve out new paths.

His big lieder cycles, too, are highly original. It's no secret he wished to be known as more of an "all-rounder" but what can a guy do when he writes some of the all-time best solo piano music.

Be that as it may, DD, I find endless melodic and harmonic invention in Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121 for example.

[Florestan]

He also wrote quite a bit of music for children/beginners (Album für die Jugend etc.)

This article makes an interesting case for a completely different approach to Album für die Jugend. Well worth a reading.

http://www.appca.com.au/proceedings/2009/part_2/Green_Elizabeth.pdf

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The four Symphonies and the Piano Concerto

Sarge

I like this list! His orchestral music is wonderfully unique. So different in his approach to the orchestra than anyone else I can think of!

[Dancing Divertimentian]

It was not merely a wish but Schumann felt some kind of duty to continue the great German/Austrian musical tradition (that seemed always in danger both from frivolous Italian and French opera as well as from crazy modernists like Wagner) from Bach to Beethoven and write large scale works such as symphonies and string quartets. He also wrote quite a bit of music for children/beginners (Album für die Jugend etc.) as well as choral pieces for amateur choirs. Both he and Mendelssohn apparently saw not only the keeping up of tradition but also musical education for the people (or at least the educated middle and upper classes who had leisure for it) as their duty.

Yes, indeed.

The superiority of his (earlyish) piano music and lieder is probably not only due to the fact that he was less restrained there but also because there was far more room for invention and originality. Much easier to do something interesting after Beethoven in lieder and shortish piano pieces than in symphonies and string quartets!

Ha! Yes, good point.

But I find a lot of his chamber music very original and interesting. He was one of the first composers to write non-trivial short pieces for duo and trio, like the Fantasiestücke op.73 (clarinet), the romances for oboe, the piano trio pieces op.88 and the late Märchenerzählungen etc.

My approach to Mirror Image's query was a bit off-the-cuff since I was about to dash out the door to eat with the significant other, so no slight to Schumann intended. His chamber music certainly has its partisans.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Be that as it may, DD, I find endless melodic and harmonic invention in Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121 for example.

Cool. I certainly won't stop you from enjoying these works. I was just responding to your query, that's all.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Hm, I see I ended up with the exact same list as Dancing Divertimentian.

A "great minds" moment.

I do love a great many other works by Schumann, e.g. the Piano Quintet, the Cello Concerto, the Violin Sonata no. 2, the Geistervariationen, the Etudes in Canonical Form, the symphonies, but the solo piano works and songs are clearly the greatest strengths in his oeuvre.

The cello concerto is a great piece, indeed.

[Mirror Image]

Cool. I certainly won't stop you from enjoying these works. I was just responding to your query, that's all.

No worries, DD.

[Mahlerian]

Not in any particular order:

Kreisleriana
Carnaval
Fantasie in C
Symphony No. 2 in C
Piano Quartet in E-flat

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

OMG I feel so stupid...........I forgot to proclaim my love and enthusiasm for Schumann's String Quartet no. 1

[The new erato]

Violin sonata no 2
Cello concerto (seriously)
Dichterliebe
Symphonic Etudes
op 148 Requiem (I think)

[Drasko]

Fantasie
Kreisleriana
Symphonic Etudes
String Quartet 41/1
Piano Quintet
Piano Concerto

[Mirror Image]

Fantasie
Kreisleriana
Symphonic Etudes
String Quartet 41/1
Piano Quintet
Piano Concerto

That's more than five.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

That's more than five.

I think your thread title needs editing..........

With a composer like Schumann who has composed intriguing and unique works across his entire career, all of what I could only say are of the highest quality, 5 is just a teeny bit too small a number for some people I guess.

[Chronochromie]

Gesänge der Frühe
Dichterliebe
Violin Sonata No. 2
Piano Trio No. 3
Violin Concerto

Honorable mention: Scenes from Goethe's Faust

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Symphony no. 2
Symphony no. 3
Szenen aus Goethes Faust
Dichterliebe
Piano Concerto
Konzerstück for Four Horns and Orchestra
Kreisleriana

Really interesting approach to orchestral colour in his music. It is hard to find recordings which really do justice to his orchestral works. Most tend to try to make his music sound much more weighty than it needs to be.......from my perspective the weightiness comes from the emotional evocations triggered by his use of harmony and especially modulation. An amazing composer.

If I am limited only to five I will have to very sadly and reluctantly change my list to the following

Symphony no. 2
String quartet no. 1
Szenen aus Goethes Faust
Konzertstücke
Kreisleriana

aaaaaa I can't do this

[Madiel]

A bit tricky as I'm in the midst of discovering a whole new bunch of works, but...

Fantasy, op.17
Piano Quartet
Dichterliebe
Liederkreis (Eichendorff)
Kerner Lieder


To be honest I couldn't totally guarantee you that those are the right song cycles, but I'm putting them in because Schumann the composer of Lieder thrills me far more than Schumann the composer of piano pieces. The conventional wisdom may be to praise the early piano works, but the episodic nature of many of them doesn't really appeal to my sensibilities.

The symphonies I've listened to so far in the Gardiner set, I've liked very much, but I couldn't single one out yet. The Piano Concerto should also get a look-in but I was enthusiastically typing out Lieder before I thought of it.

[Karl Henning]

On one hand, I enjoy each Schumann symphony as I am listening to it;  on the other, whether as a set or individually, they are unlikely ever to crack my "Top Ten Schumann Works" list.


Whether this is related or not:  Just my own experience, of course, but I have never been engaged by the Piano Concerto to the degree I was when part of a performance;  no listening experience after has had any fire.  (FWIW I feel much the same about Carmina burana and the Verdi Requiem.)

[(poco) Sforzando]

Fantasie in C, Op. 17
Piano Quintet
Fantasiestücke, Op. 12
Kreisleriana
Dichterliebe

in roughly that order

Brian has more or less saved me the trouble. But instead of the Quintet the 2nd Symphony, especially its incandescent slow movement. For the Fantasiestücke, the Davidsbündlertänze.