5 Albumblätter, Op.124 Nos.1-5

Impromptu

Leides Ahnung

Scherzino

Walzer

Phantasietanz

With the exception of Lied ohne Ende, which is not included in today’s selection, the short pieces published in 1854 as Albumblätter Op.124 are rather less personal than those in the companion volume of Bunte Blätter Op.99. They are no less interesting for that, not least because they cover a wider period of the composer’s career. The first item goes as far back as 1832, the year Schumann first set eyes on Clara Wieck, who was no more than thirteen at the time. Aptly entitled Impromptu, it is a wittily improvised pursuit of an agile little four-note theme. Leides Ahnung (Presentiment of Sorrow) is the one bit of the Variations on the Allegretto of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony that Schumann thought worth of publication. So, until the complete work was published in 1976 (143 years after it was written) all the world knew of it was this faintly lugubrious lament in octaves in the middle of the keyboard punctuated by staccato chords on either side of it.

The Scherzino, with its particularly delightful middle section, is thought to be a reject from Papillons, which was completed in 1831. But if the 1832 date given in the score is correct it can’t be and, anyway, its outer sections sound more like an anticipation of the last movement of Carnaval than an echo of the earlier work. There is no doubt, however, that the Walzer (Waltz) was at one time associated with Carnaval, not so much because of the credible date of 1835 given in the score as because of the unmistakable identity of its opening theme. Phantasietanz (Fantasy Dance) is dated 1836, which is two years before the composition of the Kinderszenen (Scenes of Chilhood), but it is with the more scary pieces in that collection that it belongs.