Schumann's genius as a composer is well known; perhaps less well known is the fact that he was also a gifted music critic who wrote hundreds of perceptive essays, articles, and reviews for the Neue Zeitschrift fur M�sik, the influential music journal he founded in 1834. The present work, translated and edited by noted critic Henry Pleasants, contains 61 of the most important critical pieces Schumann wrote for Neue Zeitschrift between 1834 and 1844. The articles are arranged in chronological order, with ample annotation, demonstrating not only Schumann's development as a writer and critic but also the evolution of music in Europe during a decisive decade. In addition to such major set pieces as "Florestan's Shrovetide Oration," the essays on Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Schubert's Symphony in C Major, and the imaginative and literate "The Editor's Ball," this volume offers discerning observations on Mendelssohn, Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt, Cherubini, and other giants. Also included are critical considerations of an ensemble of minor masters: Sphor, Hiller, Moscheles, Hummel, and Gade, among others. The result is a rich and representative picture of musical life in the mid-19th century. Schumann's criticism has long been famous for its perceptiveness and literary style. Those qualities are in ample evidence in this treasury of his finest critical writings, now available to every music lover in this inexpensive, high-quality edition.

Reviews of specific compositions are accompanied by Schumann's articles and epigrams on all aspects of music

Robert Schumann (1810-56) is one of the most important and representative composers of the Romantic era. Here acclaimed biographer martin Geck tells the story of this multifaceted genius, set in the context of the political and social revolutions of his time.

(Amadeus). Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, one of today's great interpreters of vocal music, examines Schumann's life in relation to his entire vocal oeuvre. The songs, his only opera, Genoveva , his secular oratorios, the Scenes from Goethe's Faust, Manfred , and the Mass and Requiem are all given careful consideration, with suggestions for interpretation. HARDCOVER.

Drawing on previously unpublished sources, this groundbreaking biography of Robert Schumann sheds new light on the great composer’s life and work. With the rigorous research of a scholar and the eloquent prose of a novelist, Judith Chernaik takes us into Schumann’s nineteenth-century Romantic milieu, where he wore many “masks” that gave voice to each corner of his soul. The son of a book publisher, he infused his pieces with literary ideas. He was passionately original but worshipped the past: Bach and Beethoven, Shake­speare and Byron. He believed in artistic freedom but struggled with constraints of form. His courtship and marriage to the brilliant pianist Clara Wieck—against her father’s wishes—is one of the great musical love stories of all time. Chernaik freshly explores his troubled relations with fellow composers Mendelssohn and Chopin, and the full medi­cal diary—long withheld—from the Endenich asylum where he spent his final years enables her to look anew at the mystery of his early death. By turns tragic and transcendent, Schumann shows how this extraordinary artist turned his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly—and timelessly—to the heart.

After obtaining access to long sought-after archival material about the final years of Robert Schumann, Lise Deschamps Ostwald, the author’s widow, is finally able to detail the composer’s last years at the mental institution in Endenich, fulfilling her husband’s original intent.

"A selection of unabridged works from 'Serie IV. F'ur Streichinstrumente' and 'Serie V. F'ur Pianoforte und andere Instrumente' of the Collected Works Edition (Robert Schumann's Werke. Herausgegeben von Clara Schumann), originally published by Breitkopf & H'artel"--T.p. verso.