| 1. Tracklist |
| 2. 01. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 1, Melodie |
| 3. 02. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 2, Soldatenmarsch |
| 4. 03. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 3, Trällerliedchen |
| 5. 04. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 4, Ein Choral |
| 6. 05. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 5, Stückchen |
| 7. 06. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 6, Armes Waisenkind |
| 8. 07. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 7, Jägerliedchen |
| 9. 08. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 8, Wilder Reiter |
| 10. 09. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 9, Volksliedchen |
| 11. 10. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 10, Fröhlicher Landmann, von der Arbeit zurückkehrend |
| 12. 11. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 11, Sizilianisch |
| 13. 12. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 12, Knecht Ruprecht |
| 14. 13. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 13, Mai, lieber Mai |
| 15. 14. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 14, Kleine Studie |
| 16. 15. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 15, Frühlingsgesang |
| 17. 16. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 16, Erster Verlust |
| 18. 17. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 17, Kleiner Morgenwanderer |
| 19. 18. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 18, Schnitterliedchen |
| 20. 19. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 19, Kleine Romanze |
| 21. 20. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 20, Ländliches Lied |
| 22. 21. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 21 in C Major |
| 23. 22. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 22, Rundgesang |
| 24. 23. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 23, Reiterstück |
| 25. 24. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 24, Ernteliedchen |
| 26. 25. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 25, Nachklänge aus dem Theater |
| 27. 26. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 26 in F Major |
| 28. 27. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 27, Kanonisches Liedchen |
| 29. 28. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 28, Erinnerung |
| 30. 29. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 29, Fremder Mann |
| 31. 30. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 30 in F Minor |
| 32. 31. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 31, Kriegslied |
| 33. 32. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 32, Sheherazade |
| 34. 33. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 33, Weinlesezeit – Fröhliche Zeit! |
| 35. 34. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 34, Thema |
| 36. 35. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 35, Mignon |
| 37. 36. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 36, Lied italienischer Marinari |
| 38. 37. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 37, Matrosenlied |
| 39. 38. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 38, Winterzeit I |
| 40. 39. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 39, Winterzeit II |
| 41. 40. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 40, Kleine Fuge |
| 42. 41. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 41, Nordisches Lied |
| 43. 42. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 42, Figurierter Choral |
| 44. 43. Album für die Jugend, Op. 68: No. 43, Silvesterlied |
| 45. Though Bach, Mozart and others had written music for young and inexpert performers, Schumann was the first great composer to penetrate imaginatively into the world of children. The earliest of his works to evoke childhood was Kinderszenen of 1838, whose tender portraits of a carefree innocence are intimately bound up with his longing for Clara Wieck. But, though technically undemanding, the Kinderszenen are essentially adults’ music, in Schumann’s words ‘reminiscences of a grown-up for grown-ups’. Ten years later, now married to Clara and with three daughters, Schumann composed his Album for the Young, a collection of forty-three miniatures written specifically for children. The first pieces were intended as a birthday present for his eldest daughter, Marie, who was seven on 1 September 1848; then, as Schumann wrote to a friend, ‘one after another was added’, with a gradual increase in difficulty. As an entry in Clara’s family diary reveals, Schumann was encouraged to produce an extended collection of pieces for children by the thought that most of the music learned in piano lessons was worthless; and his didactic purpose is underlined by his original intention of supplementing the pieces with extracts from other composers’ works, and by the list of musical maxims which he added to the second, 1851, edition of the Album. These include such pungently worded precepts as ‘Don’t just tinkle at the keys!’ and ‘Play rhythmically! Many virtuosi sound like a drunkard walking! Don’t imitate them!’ |
| 46. 8) time. But Schumann creates a wealth of rhythmic diversity within his self-imposed limitations, and monotony only creeps in when all the pieces are dutifully played one after the other—a notion which would surely have horrified the composer |
| 47. 8 metre and crisp staccato writing, while the following number, Wilder Reiter , in similar metre, is the first to entrust part of the melodic line to the left hand |
| 48. One of the most touching of the early numbers is ‘Little Folksong’ , which contrasts mournful D minor music with a dance-like centrepiece in D major. Here Schumann is already demanding sharp emotional responses from his young players. A similar acute characterization is needed for No 12 , with its eerie unisons in the depths of the keyboard and adventurously modulating central episode. In complete contrast are the two delightful numbers which evoke spring: No 13, Mai, lieber Mai, the first of several pieces in the Album to suggest Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, and the more inward-looking and chromatic No 15, Frühlingsgesang, where the soft pedal is used to deepen the music’s rapt contemplation |
| 49. The second part of the Album opens with ‘Little Romance’ , whose melodic shape, texture and faint sense of agitation again call to mind Mendelssohn. Several of the more boisterous numbers in Part Two carry descriptive titles similar to those in the first part, though the music is now more intricately worked. Especially characterful are ‘The Horseman’ with its magical coda fading into the distance; ‘Echoes of the Theatre’ , which imitates various sounds of the orchestra; and No 36, Lied italienischer Marinari , with its fiery tarantella rhythms. But Schumann dispenses with picturesque childlike rides for the more reflective numbers which predominate in the second part of the Album. These include two numbers with literary associations and two in which Schumann pays tribute to fellow composers: No 28, Erinnerung—‘Remembrance’ , which is dedicated to the memory of Mendelssohn, who had died in November 1847; and Nordisches Lied , subtitled ‘Greetings to Niels Gade’ in which the first four notes G-A-D-E represent the Danish composer’s name |
| 50. Among those pieces which bear no extra-musical description, the three untitled numbers are in Schumann’s most intimate lyrical vein. Another Beethoven allusion, this time to the trio ‘Euch werde Lohn’ from Fidelio, occurs in the searching, harmonically subtle No 21 |
| 51. 8 subject is a transformation of the prelude’s opening phrase. The final contrapuntal number is the Figurierter Choral, No 42, in which the melody first heard in No 4 is enriched with flowing counter-melodies. But it is characteristic of the Album that these contrapuntal pieces should contain nothing of dry pedantry. As in the whole collection, Schumann’s didactic purpose is balanced by the freshness of his poetic imagination and the extraordinary sympathy and understanding he shows for the mind of a child |
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