"That who does not play together with the piano - does not play on it at all"
R. Schumann

Robert Schumann was a musician with particularly delicate psyche. He did not become an outstanding pianist due to his finger injury; however, this helped his composing talent declare itself in full. Schumann's music illuminates a heart deepest shades and intonations. Few romantic composers could compete with Schumann's sensitivity to the nuances of a human soul, the sounding of which he conveyed in his works. “Nothing meaningful is created in art without enthusiasm” - these words of the composer reveal the authentic essence of his creative search. Being an artist who was subtly sensitive and attentive to the world around him, Schumann could not stay away and did not react to the events that took place in the time of his work. He succumbed enthusiastically to the influence of the era of revolutions and national liberation wars that shocked Europe in the first half of the 19^th century.

Schumann's contemporaries perceived his work as a mysterious phenomenon. New images and forms and the composer’s peculiar musical language were unusual and complicated for the audience perception, they required attentive listening and emotional wringer from an ordinary listener. None of Schumann West European contemporaries, except Chopin, possessed such passion and variety of emotional nuances and accents. For the first time so precise and vivid portraits, sketches and scenes appeared in the instrumental music thanks to Schumann. The composer used to say: “I am concerned about everything that happens in this world — politics, literature, people; I think about all this in my own way, and then it all emerges outward, looks for expression and spills over in music”.

Schumann’s novelty of thinking, peculiar and original musical language and mood variations, bizarre images that appear by means of melody and harmony and unusually flexible rhythm were clearly demonstrated in his piano music and his vocal lyrics.

For the composer's birth anniversary, we digitized his Concert for piano and orchestra in A minor, Op. 54, which Schumann wrote in 1845. It is the most  well-known work of this genre in the German music of the Romantic era. The concert consists of three parts - 1) Allegro affettuoso; 2) Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso; 3) Allegro vivace. Schumann worked on several piano concerts before. Thus, for example, in 1828 he started to compose a concert in E Flat Major, from 1829 to 1831 he worked on F major concert, and in 1839 he wrote one part of D minor concert, however, none of these works was completed.

The biography of the composer is in the section Authors.