Schumann: Music For Cello

Track Listing -

Fantasiestücke, Op. 73
Adagio and Allegro in A flat major, Op. 70
Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, WoO 27 arranged by Steven Isserlis
Abendlied, Op. 85 No. 12
3 Romances, Op. 94
5 Stücke im Volkston, Op. 102

Schumann’s affection for the cello ran deep. It was an instrument he had played in his youth, and considered taking up again when, at the age of twenty-two, an accident to his hand forced him to relinquish his dream of being a virtuoso pianist. ‘I want to take up the violoncello again (one needs only the left hand for this) and it will be very useful to me in composing symphonies’, he wrote to his mother. The sound of the cello played without the right hand would have been somewhat minimalist; but his love for the instrument is clearly demonstrated by the cello parts in all four of his symphonies, as well as in the concertos for piano and violin, and of course throughout his chamber music. As the great musicologist Donald Francis Tovey put it: ‘The qualities of the violoncello are exactly those of the beloved dreamer whom we know as Schumann.’