Starting with falling into a dream, Dreaming Kreisleriana contains almost every sensation we could experience in our life. The violent high A in ‘Lied im Traume’ delivers a clear message — it is not going to be a peaceful dream. Having the naughty left hand playing around, Kreisleriana No.8 impresses us with a strong sense of lostness. Gradually dwindling the repeated high G, ‘Glocken’ strikes, as if our important one is going away, calling in distance, and bringing us to the most ardent confession of love, Kreisleriana No.2. The vehement surges at the beginning of ‘Anfangs Lebhaft’ tell exactly how we feel after a confession, agitated and restless. Even though we have not yet received an answer, Kreisleriana No.3 conveys a stubborn resolution, which quietly blurs and fades away in ‘Zerrinnendes Bild’ after short unease — ‘Intermezzo’. Nevertheless, the affection is powerful, rushing back to Kreisleriana No.1 and resulting in weird, childlike behaviours — ‘Kinderlied’. Yet there is always a moment that we realise: no matter how hard we try, everything is hopeless. The helplessness in Kreisleriana No.6 leads to an endless seeking in ‘Fast zu ernst’, provoking Kreisleriana No.5 and receiving numerous fleeting thoughts — ‘Waldszene’. The following ‘Choral’ represents a pilgrimage. As the last hope disappears, we get angry in Kreisleriana No.7. We pray, and finally we ask: ‘Warum?’ Surely, it is desperate, but nothing cannot be healed by Kreisleriana No.4, and, after dreaming the whole life experience, ‘Mit Humor und Feinsinn’ is the time for us to wake up.
i Äußerst bewegt (Extremely animated), D minor
ii Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (Very inwardly and not too quickly), B♭ major.
iii Sehr aufgeregt (Very agitated), G minor
iv Sehr langsam (Very slowly), B♭ major/G minor
v Sehr lebhaft (Very lively), G minor
vi Sehr langsam (Very slowly), B♭ major
vii Sehr rasch (Very fast), C minor/E♭ major
viii Schnell und spielend (Fast and playful), G minor.
Kreisleriana, Op. 16, is a composition in eight movements by Robert Schumann for solo piano, subtitled Phantasien für das Pianoforte. Schumann claimed to have written it in only four days in April 1838 and a revised version appeared in 1850. The work was dedicated to Frédéric Chopin, but when a copy was sent to the Polish composer, "he commented favorably only on the design of the title page"
i Kinderlied
ii Fast zu ernst
iii Anfangs lebhaft
iv Waldszene
v Choral
vi Warum?
vii Intermezzo
viii Zerrinnendes Bild
ix Glocken
x Lied im Traume
xi Mit Humor und Feinsinn
Referring to Robert Schumann, the title sets the general mood of these character pieces which alternate between Romantic and contemporary tonal language. This is how the composer stresses it in his preface: 'May the performer discover the specific tone of each of the pieces and make it sound sometimes scornful, sometimes dry, tinged with melancholy, yet always with humour and sensitivity.'
Xin Ru Chen - Piano
Appearing across Europe and China for her performance and research, XinRu Chen enjoys her life as a concert pianist, music scholar. Acquiring her PhD from the Royal Academy of Music at age 26, XinRu has performed in many prestigious halls in UK, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Italy and China, including St.Martin in-the-Fields Cathedral, St.James Piccadilly Church, Southwark Cathedral, Regent Hall, Duke’s Hall, Susie Sainsbury Theatre, and the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Her repertoire covers a wide range of romantic and contemporary music, recognised by the Janet Duff Greet Prize in the Christian Carpenter Competition. During the pandemic in 2020, XinRu led a series of experimental concerts at the Royal Academy of Music, live-streaming on the Academy website.
With her passion about music and piano, XinRu has given performances at many festivals across Europe, including the Petworth Festival, the Chipping Camden Music Festival, the Dartington Summer Music Festival, the III Festival International de Piano de Málaga, the Perugia International Piano Festival, and the Royal Academy of Music Summer Festival. As a soloist, she enjoys a broad range of concerto repertoire from early classical to late romantic period, cooperating with many orchestras, such as the Penzance Society Orchestra, the Ashdod Orchestra, and the Royal Academy of Music Student Orchestra. During her study life, XinRu has worked with many renowned musicians, including Christopher Elton, Alexander Kobrin, Pascal Devoyon, Imogen Cooper, Dina Parakhina, and Joseph Banowetz, and has been awarded many scholarships — the Leverhulme Trust Undergraduate Scholarship, the American Society for the Royal Academy of Music Scholarship, and the Marjorie McAdams Scholarship. In 2017 and 2018, XinRu was awarded the Arthur Hervey Scholarship and the Franz Reizenstein Prize at the Royal Academy of Music for her excellent academic works.
Meanwhile, XinRu is also an active music scholar, presenting her project ‘Reprogramming Schumann and Contemporary Piano Cycles’ at many conferences in 2022, including the AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music, the 12th Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900, and the Perform-Live festival conference at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. She was selected as one of the representatives of the PhD department to present on the PhD open day at the Royal Academy of Music in 2021, and also to participate the Sibelius Academy co-seminar in Helsinki, in which her project and performance has received general acclaims. Currently she is bringing her innovative reprogrammes out to the general public, aiming to provide performers a new way to concert programming, giving audiences a refreshing view of conventional repertoire, as well as making the contemporary repertoire more accessible.
XinRu finished her undergraduate and postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music in 2019, under the tutorage of Professor Joanna MacGregor. In 2023, she acquired her PhD degree at the Academy, supervised by Professor Roderick Chadwick and Professor Christopher Elton.
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