Robert Schumann - Roll over Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 & Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 (2019)

Kinderszenen (original spelling Kinderscenen, "Scenes from Childhood"), Opus 15, by Robert Schumann (1810-56), is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. Schumann wrote 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version. The unused movements were published years later in Bunte Blätter, Opus 99, and Albumblätter, Opus 124.

Schumann initially intended to publish Kinderszenen together with Novelletten (Opus 21); the shared literary theme is suggested by the original title Kindergeschichten (Children's Tales). He told his wife Clara that the "thirty small, droll things", most of them less than a page in length, were inspired by her comment that he sometimes seemed "like a child". He described them in 1840 as "more cheerful, gentler, more melodic" than his earlier works.

No. 7, Träumerei, is one of Schumann's best known pieces; it was the title of a 1944 German biographical film on Robert Schumann. Träumerei is also the opening and closing musical theme in the 1947 Hollywood film Song of Love, starring Katharine Hepburn as Clara Wieck Schumann.

Schumann originally called this work Leichte Stücke (Easy Pieces). The section titles were only added after the completion of the music, and Schumann described the titles as "nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation". Timothy Taylor has discussed Schumann's choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music in 19th century culture and economics.


The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (completed in the year 1845), is the only piano concerto written by Schumann. The work premiered in Leipzig on 1 January 1846 with Clara Schumann playing the solo part. Ferdinand Hiller, the work's dedicatee, conducted.