Schumann’s turbulent love-affair with the barely eighteen-year-old Ernestine von Fricken, though strong enough to lead to a secret engagement, lasted only a few months. Nevertheless, it managed to give rise to one of his most frequently played compositions: Carnaval. Some of these twenty-one character pieces are named after figures from the commedia dell’arte, others after such fictitious creations as Florestan and Eusebius, in which Schumann acknowledges his own split personality. The mysterious way that these figures relate to specific people in Schumann’s surroundings – and the deeper significance of the recurring motifs Ab-C-B and A-Eb-C-B – are explained in the editor’s detailed commentary in this revised new edition.

Along with thePapillons, theDavidsbndlertnzeand theKreisleriana, Robert SchumannsCarnavalop. 9 is one of the composers most important piano cycles. Similar to the Faschingsschwank from Vienna op. 26, the individual character pieces refer to carnivalesque scenes of a masked ball, attended not only by the composer himself (under the pseudonyms Florestan and Eusebius), but also by other representatives of his field such as Frdric Chopin and Niccol Paganini as well as his later wife Clara (as Chiarina) take part. This new edition is based on the Urtext of the New Schumann Complete Edition. In the absence of manuscript sources (with the exception of sketches), the edition can essentially only be based on the German first edition; the incomplete French first edition was used for a critical comparison. The notes on interpretation take into account the instruments of Schumanns time as well as historical sources on performance practice.