The Comparison And Analysis On Different Performance Versions Of Schumann’s Kreisleriana

Robert Schumann, German composer, who was considered as one of the most brilliant composers in the first half of nineteenth century of European music history. Composed in various genres, Schumann’s works which contained with piano works, Lied, chamber music and orchestra works. As the most valuable part of his compositions, his piano works reflected the feature of Romantic period profoundly.Kreisleriana, Op 16, composed in 1838 when Schumann was suffering his huge personal difficulties. At that time, he hadn’t married with Clara, and the admiration and emotion to the young lady played the main role in the music. However, since the fierce against from Clara’s father and the composer’s personal dignity, this work expressed the complicated feelings. Subtitled as Phantasien fur das Pianoforte, this work contains with eight delicate and relatively independent short pieces. These pieces fully reflected the various musical structures and intense dramatics of Schumann’s music.So far, there are many famous pianists have performed this piece a lot. To the same piece, every artist has her/his own opinions and performance style, which so-clled second time composes. Compared with Horowitz, Brendel, Aegerich, Pollini and Schff’s five performance editions, we studied their individual/common piano techniques and music expressions to the Kreisleriana, Op 16. Through the results, we could reach the further comprehension to the piece, which showed its performance techniques, artistic styles and music expressions etc. Then we could also get deeper aesthetic understanding on the romantic period piano works in the future.