Monday, August 2, 2010

Taking a hint from Mozart in G major I went to play Schumann's Kinderszenen, a cycle I have always found troubling, in the way that I find many Schumann cycles troubling--some of the pieces have ambiguous tonality and some are difficult to begin and/or end.

What do I find? It is all about relationships within the family of G major. Did Schumann have reactions to G major when he was a child? Do those reactions set the scene for the pieces in this cycle? Interesting to speculate.