Das Kind

It has been so easy over the last century-and-a-half-plus to severely underestimate the creativity of Robert Schumann as a composer because he was so often thought of as a miniaturist, and because he was often plagued by self-doubts and, much more tragically, severe mental illness that caused him to end his life in 1856 at the age of 46, leaving behind a grieving widow in his wife Clara. This was, after all, a composer who wrote four very solid symphonies, a hugely popular piano concerto, an equally popular cello concerto, and various other orchestral works. Schumann also wrote choral works, notably a very inspired C Minor setting of the Latin Mass.