Learn how to play Schumann with imagination and inspiration

In Schumann’s piano oeuvre, we immediately see how inspiration came to him away from music. His art thrives on external influences, and it is our duty as teachers to guide and inspire our pupils towards the love of literature, the Carnaval and Commedia dell’arte characters that so strongly stimulated Schumann towards composition. Schumann’s music mixes extreme contrasts with extraordinary imagination. His obsession with the writings of ETA Hoffmann and all of that author’s bizarre, vivid characters is reflected through the utmost contrasts we can immediately hear in virtually every collection of piano pieces Schumann wrote. Sound out The Tales of Hoffmann. Share a laugh or two over that strange highly opinionated tomcat Murr! In a broader sense, pupils should immediately be conscious of the way Schumann separated his music into two categories. Think of ‘Eusebius’ for his reflectively introverted pieces and ‘Florestan’ for those that are more energised and outgoing.

When teaching Schumann, I find it most helpful to begin with lots of extra pianistic pre-play. I encourage students to ‘live in the moment’ in the earliest stages of learning and focus on as vibrantly vivid a focus as possible as they prepare to play the opening bars. Sing, dance, visualise, breathe, smell, feel. A multisensory approach is really helpful if you want to kick start fire and focus!

Think of how this could be applied to famous movements from Album for the Young and Scenes from Childhood. There is no point in thinking about fingering in ‘The Happy Farmer’ if you cannot sing the strong melodic line, visualising a ‘merry peasant’ in the process. How can we begin to understand ‘Träumerei’ if we are unwilling to remove ourselves from the madding crowd, retreating to a quieter place for reflections and whispered dulcet sounds? This is music that demands imaginative engagement from the outset. Allow priority time in lessons for extensive exploration of all the non-musical possibilities that can align and stimulate convincing interpretation.

'Chopin' from Carnaval Op 9

Let’s take this approach to ‘Chopin’ from Carnaval and ‘Aufschwung’ (‘Soaring’) from Fantasiestücke Op 12, as both pieces were recently printed inside Pianist magazine (issue 142). In ‘Chopin’, Schumann suggests that the piece is varied on its repetition: play it strongly like a Ballade first time round, then on its repeat, play it like a Nocturne. I’ve always imagined this wonderfully flowing outpouring unfolding as two world-class ice skaters glide seamlessly over the rink, their bodies united as one, as the left-hand figuration inspires the most graceful, finished, and inspirational seamless movement. On the nocturnal repetition, it is as though the ice dancers become ghostly, moving further and further into an ethereal distance, the listener barely able at the end to hear the sounds or see the movements that continue into the ether.

Listen to Daniil Trifonov play 'Chopin'

Aufschwung from Fantasiestücke Op 12

With ‘Aufschwung’, we are immediately in stronger terrain. Here we have two dancers, male and female, moving together in competition at close proximity. Who will prove the most aesthetically confident as they take on the most athletically-charged leaps, jumps and pirouettes? With the dotted rhythms they take pride in their physicality, and with the filigree semiquaver movement from bar 17 the female moves like a transcendental spinning top, enchanting and mesmerising onlookers with her astonishing footwork.

Martha Argerich is passionate and powerful in Aufschwung

Both these examples can benefit from multisensory pre-play before moving to the keyboard. As movement/dancing can be considered the chief motivator in each case, it makes sense for you to encourage dancing, or at least a little physical movement, from your students. They should breathe like dancers, feel internal passion, visualise scenes in which the piece could be set, and even imagine the feel of an ice rink or dance floor from which the music could take off.

Schumann’s extraordinarily inspirational music requires exceptional imagination from interpreters. The impulsive fantasy and wonder that is contained in virtually every phrase that Schumann penned makes his music quintessentially romantic. Let it live in the moment! Think outside of conventional pianistic boundaries when you practise Schumann – and let his music soar to the Heavens.