Michael Cooper wrote:

>BTW I find it hardly surprising that you enjoy many pianists'
>Kinderszenen.  The music presents few challenges interpretative or
>technical, and obviously is quite accessible to any listener.  And it
>is hard for a pianist to find an idiosyncratic approach to take to the
>performance; the music is just to simple, charming, and direct, so any
>one pianist tends to play it about the same as the next.

Whoa!  As Schumann himself said about the shallow critical response to the
pieces after he had written them, "they [the critics] only see A-B-C ..."
The pieces are deceptively simple.  Granted they are retrospective views
of childhood but they are written by a grown-up, and they are certainly not
meant *for* children.  I agree with Michael to the extent it doesn't take
a great deal of imagination to understand what Schumann is trying to evoke
with the Kinderscenen, but the challenge to the interpreter is to express
that comprehension with the taste and control to give a value suitable to
them.  I for one am looking forward to Don's analysis.

John Dalmas
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