Schumann, Robert: Studien für den Pedalflügel

In order to preserve compositions for pedal flute for practice, they had to be arranged. Schumann's studies for the pedal flute op. 56 in particular have always been recognized as special gems and arranged for various instrumentations. There are arrangements for piano four hands by Georges Bizet (1873), for two pianos four hands by Claude Debussy (1891), as well as numbers 2, 4, 5 and 6 for piano solo by Clara Schumann (1896; new edition in Edition Dohr as DOHR17629in preparation). There are two arrangements by Theodor Kirchner from 1888: one for piano, violin and violoncello (new edition in Edition Dohr as DOHR18987) and the present version for piano four hands. Theodor Kirchner had a particularly close relationship with Schumann's music throughout his life and arranged many of his works for piano, including song cycles, the string quartets and the four symphonies. His friend Johannes Brahms also appreciated Kirchner as an arranger of his works. (Jürg Löffler)