Robert Schumann

Of the eight fantasy pieces comprising Schumann's Op. 12, this one, "Aufschwung" (Soaring), along with "In der Nacht" (In the Night), are the two stormiest, most unsettling works in the set. The formal design of "Aufschwung" is rather unusual, exhibiting a mixture of sonata and rondo features. Its turbulent mood suggests not the turbulence and frustrations associated with passion and love -- Schumann was then courting Clara Wieck over the objections of her father -- but with life's fears and disappointments. Indeed, much of the piece projects a dire, urgent sense in its insistent, crushingly powerful theme. The work opens with that ten-note theme whose vehemence in hammering home its sense of fate has all the trappings of a piano counterpart to that powerful motto dominating Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. But of course, the two works are entirely different in most other respects. "Aufschwung" also has a heroic sense and its second subject is less driven in its lively character. Another theme is soon heard, Romantic in character but somewhat agitated, yet still providing fine contrast to the dark resolve of the main theme, which returns more ominously than before to close out this approximately three-minute piece.