Robert Schumann (1810-1056)
Kreisleriana, op. 16
Etudes symphoniques, op. 13

Nick Van Bloss, piano

Most of Robert Schumann's best works for piano were composed in the decade between his twentieth and thirtieth birthdays, after his own prowess as a pianist was permanently crippled by a self-inflicted finger injury (he used a clumsy contrivance with which he tried to strengthen the fourth finger of his right hand). His interest in keyboard virtuosity then declined in favour of a more poetic style, less ornate than either Chopin or Liszt, and with more facility in variation-form and the like than in the larger sonata structures.