Connecting To The Childlike Innocence In Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Op. 15

I have been revisiting pieces that I played as a child, and Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Op. 15 is one that has brought me both immense joy and different challenges at different stages of my musical life. It requires of the performer a frustratingly delicate balance of childlike innocence and refinement of a great artist. Robert dedicated the work to Clara, writing “You once said to me that I often seemed like a child, and I suddenly got inspired and knocked off around 30 quaint little pieces... I selected several and titled them Kinderszenen. You will enjoy them, though you will need to forget that you are a virtuoso when you play them."

When I played this piece as a child, I felt genuinely connected to the music, as if I were reading a storybook. The piece did not strike me as difficult. I felt that I understood what it was about and played it to my absolute enjoyment. The next time I played it, I was 24, and it seemed much more challenging. I felt that I no longer had the childlike confidence to play it as I felt, and that I had to internalize childlike wander with an ease of a seasoned master. This is the challenge of this piece, but did Schumann intend it this way?

Kinderszenen, Op. 15 is a set of thirteen pieces, each a vivid episode in a child’s day seen through the memory of an adult. Titles like "Träumerei" (Reverie), "Bittendes Kind" (Pleading Child), and Glückes genug" (Quite Happy) help the performer to communicate, and the listener to experience, the mood and character of the pieces. Schumann, however, noted that the titles were added after the composition was completed to guide the performer and listener – they did not, he said, provide a story. I find this hard to believe coming from one of the greatest musical storytellers. Nevertheless, this piece about children is not to be performed by children, and the deceptively challenging nature of the piece poses a dilemma. Is it possible to strike the balance of communicating the poetic purity of childhood memories without imposing the experience and maturity of the virtuoso performer. Moreover, the question remains whether this piece is meant to be a set of “easy” piano pieces, or a work which reaches new heights of artistic expression. I think it is the latter, which requires the performer to communicate, with the subtlest sensitivity, the beautiful simplicity of the music. Strangely unlike other pieces, reaching a new level of mastery at the piano makes Kinderszenen harder rather than easier.