Elisso Wirssaladze

'So grün und morgendlich alles wie in einer Frühlingslandschaft' (Everything as green and matitudinal as in a spring landscape'): this is how Robert Schumann described Mendelssohn's Sonata in E opus 6 in a glowing review. He also pointed to the similarities with Beethoven's late Piano Sonata opus 101. Indeed, nowhere else are the marks of the young Mendelssohn's thorough study of Beethoven's music as clear as in this 1826 sonata. Another composer who drew a lot of inspiration from the scores of the 'Bonn master' was Johannes Brahms. His variation cycles were modelled on the character variations of the Beethoven model. In his opus 9, Brahms starts with a theme from the first of the five 'Albumblätter' in the 'Bunte Blätter' opus 99 by Schumann. Schumann's 'Kinderszenen' (Scenes from Childhood), a cycle of thirteen miniatures, are by no means intended to be played by children. They are poetic reflections by adults on their own youth, or, to use Schumann's own words, 'Rückspiegelungen eines Älteren für Ältere'. 'Carnaval' is a sequence of short dances and characteristic pieces portraying various figures, ranging from real people such as Chopin and Paganini to fictional heroes such as the impetuous Florestan and the melancholy Eusebius, Schumann's two alter egos that personify the two extremes of his rich emotional life.