Not to be confused with the Introduction and allegro appassionato in G Major, op 92, of 1849, this twelve minute movement for piano and orchestra is one of the troubled works to emerge from Schumann's last years, when he was afflicted with increasing mental illness and eventually committed to an asylum. The madness is apparent in the manuscript, into which Schumann scribbled impassioned comments. These appear to have little to do with the emotional content of this music

The emphasis on this little-played work is almost entirely on the piano, with the orchestra relegated to an accompanying role. A large part of the composition is an unaccompanied cadenza. The keyboard writing is virtuosic, with fast scale passages. It is a beautiful work, though there is something grimly obsessive about the controlling role a leading motive of just two notes dominates the music. It is too tempting to look for signs of Schumann's illness in the piece: Without knowledge of the composer's sad history the writer might be more inclined to see the brevity of this main motive and the general spareness of the music as presaging a search for a new simplicity in the Romantic movement instead of making the above observations. Other writers have gone further, and found the two-note motive and the thinness of the sound as indicative of Schumann's progressive mental deterioration.

Schumann presented the score as a birthday present for his wife, Clara, in September 1853 and dedicated it to the young Johannes Brahms.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.