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Schumann's Kinderszenen might be my favourite group of pieces ever and is on my list of "in my dream world repertoire". If you haven't watched Horowitz in Vienna. Do so now. It'll take about 18 minutes of your life, but you'll thank yourself for spending the time.

Horowitz in Vienna

Okay, now that you're in love with this music, hop along and start learning a bit of it and tell us how it's going. So even if you've just always wanted to learn Träumerei (no. 7) hop in and tell us how it's going. Tough bits? Interpretive nightmares? I don't think I'll ever manage?

Currently, I can play reasonably 1, 4, 7. I've got good portions of 2, 6 and am working on 8 right now. I've been working on this for a while. It's one of two books that has permanent resident status by my piano.

I'll start off by giving a recording of 1 and 7 to start.

1 - Von Fremden Ländern und Menschen
7 - Träumerei

I need to work on 1 and get it proper and I'm not sure I'll ever handle the pace of 8 properly.

I'm working my way trough 3 (Hasche Mann) right now, for the next year Schumann recital. I plan on learning the whole thing one day, but now have different pieces to study.

The piece seems ridiculously easily when looking at the sheet music - lots of repetitions and no difficult figuratuions. BUT, bringing it to speed is just a totally different story.

Here it is by Lang Lang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MRXOBJOZXo

I don't particularly like his performance, Argerich is WAY better. But I couldn't find it isolated. Here it is the first 10 minutes of Kinderszenen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYfq6jM1c-8

Hasche Mann starts at ~3:00.

I'd be glad to participate in this group, of course if doing just the 3rd as for now is fine!


M.

Doing whatever bits and pieces you want to is fine. I'm not deluding myself in thinking I'll achieve this in the next few years (no. 9 will probably not be completed by my deathbed).

I'm hoping this is simply a place to drop ideas, exchange frustrations, and share recordings when anyone thinks they are reasonable.

All the pieces are deceptively easy looking.

Best of luck on 3. I think I sight read it a few months ago at about a tempo of 20. I put it aside. 4 and 8 are on my list to learn for the Schumann recital.

I have also been learning some of these pieces.

I just started lessons again in Aug. and my teacher assigned me #1 which I really enjoyed playing. BTW Home, your recordings are very nice!

#1 wasn't too difficult. Then my teacher gave me Traumerei (#7) at the end of Aug.-I'm still working on it. You are SO right in saying that it seems deceptively simple. It isn't!

Some of the advice I've been given on Traumerei is; remember where the melody is and bring it out, don't play too fast, and remember the title (Little dream) so it's rather delicate.

Since I've been having lessons with Traumerei, it seems as though it's a different piece of music for me about every week.
There really is alot in there.

My biggest problem was trying to play it too softly and then losing notes. So I kind of have to ignore the piano and pp markings, but that's just me. (I seem to be a little tentative in my playing).

My thoughts so far. I'm happy to see you've started this thread. I hope it stays alive.

I hope to move on to #8 this week as my husband is REALLY tired of hearing me play Traumerei.

I think "Am Kamin " (#8) will probably be next. I hope so.

Cheers!
CMohr

"Home",

This is such an unbelievable coincidence. Recently I became a grandfather and my wife and I started taping these wonderful musical children's animated "Classical Baby" programs that were on HBO. One of the songs was the #1 from Schumann. I decided to learn the piece since we want to expose our granddaughter to music right from the beginning. I really love this and yours is wonderful. I especially like the way you slowed the tempo down a bit before reintroducing the beginning theme. My only question would be the overall tempo may be a little too fast. What do you think?

Andy

The reason Traumerei is so difficult to memorize, in my humble opinion, is that the same phrase is repeated eight times with five different harmonizations. I "memorized" it about six months ago. I play it now, almost every day, just to keep it under my fingers. I still make mistakes, practically every time. Is this the repeat with the f# or the c#? Is this the one with the Ab or the A? Relying on muscle memory for this piece doesn't work well for me since the repeats have such subtle differences. I have to remember a different key point about each phrase to get it right, and I can't allow my mind to wander.

So playing traumerei from memory is not a trivial task. The effort required for me to do it does not mix well with the mood I want the music to convey...

Sam

I'd love to participate in this study group because I've learned Träumerei and plan to learn Der Dichter Spricht for the upcoming Schumann e-cital in spring 2010. I need to get a better recording of Träumerei, and I will post it here. Naturally, my ultimate goal is the entire set.

In the meantime, HomeInMyShoes, my best advice is to be mindful of Schumann's dynamic indications. The beginning for instance was a bit too loud. A bit more rubato is in order throughout. Especially at the end, though, notice the ritardando Schumann indicates starting at m. 22. Definitely a good idea to bring this out. There are two other ritards as well, at m. 8 and m. 16, respectively.

Your performance was very good, and the best thing you can do is to play slowly through it and identify each spot where you stumble. Then, stop and play that spot through at least 5 times until you get it perfectly. It's also helpful to back up and play into a trouble spot.

@Manndrew. Yes, my tempo is maybe a bit fast on no. 1. I think the biggest issue I have there is the err in notes in the final bar going back into the repeat of the second part and a need for a better rit. in the beginning of the second part. Overall, I think I need a bit more deliberate rubato overall in places.

@Horowitzian. Yep, it's not a piece that I would say I have completely mastered. It's certainly going better than say no. 2, but there's a couple of spots I do need to practice more at slower tempos to sort it out. I noticed my lack of rit. at the end of the piece. I need to exaggerate the start of it (at least in my brain) because I tend to only us it in the final three beats.

Thanks for the comments, it is very helpful.

You are most welcome! It is my pleasure to help others to the best of my ability. I ought to be able to get a better recording of Träumerei this afternoon, because I want to do a sound test for another recording i need to do soon.

As promised, here is a recording of [i]Träumerei[/i]. I used my MacBook Pro's own mic, with Audacity. I added some Garritan ambience to liven up the recording made in my rather acoustically dead living room. The piano is my Steinway B, which has not been tuned since May. I apologize for that, as it makes the recording sound a touch muddier than it would were the piano freshly tuned.

I chose a fairly slow tempo in order to emphasize legato and phrasing as much as possible. There's one or two slight rough spots.

ACK! I can't access your recording, even by typing it in.

CMOHR

Works for me...dang.


http://www.box.net/shared/hece25axoc

Got it! Thanks.

I liked that you slowed it down, so we can hear the dynamics. Nice job.

I'm going to try to make a recording soon. It may have to be on my Mac also.

We'll see what I can do here in the next couple days.


CMOHR

My pleasure! Thank you for the kind words.

I really need to invest in a better mic than what my Mac has built-in. It's not bad, but could be better. I'll probably end up getting a Zoom of some kind.

Yes, I found Blindman's Buff (#3) one of the most challenging pieces too because of the speed. If I remember correctly, #6 came next for me.
I love Kinderszenen!

CA

Sorry guys, I just realized that I played the G-A-Bâ™­-D figuration between m. 23 and 24 as F-G-A-C. It sounds all right, but it surely is wrong. I apologize for that, and will try to get another recording when I have some time.

All right. The old link is dead now, so don't try it. I recorded again — this time playing the ending correctly. I also managed to get a more "open" sound via light noise reduction, slight compression, and some Garritan ambience. The piano still needs a tuning, so it still sounds a bit dodgy, mainly in the tenor. I apologize once again for that.

http://www.box.net/shared/z9721ecgoa

Once again, a few rough spots. But overall, this take went pretty well.

PS— CMohr, this one's even a bit slower overall than the last one. Came to around 3:07.

When Horowitzian posted his recording, I assumed he posted it to share the joy of playing the piano, not because he wanted any criticism, constructive or otherwise.

Here at the ABF, giving criticism when it hasn't been asked for is considered rude.

I was a happy participant of the first study group here, the Croatian Rhapsody Group.

We posted 'in progress' recordings all the time, some of them extremely slow.

No one complained.

We were all part of the Group.


Mel

Bravo!

CMohr

Deleted and sent a PM instead.