Like many other nineteenth-century musicians, Robert Schumann wanted to settle down in the musical capital of Vienna. Though these plans came tonaught, his stay in Vienna in 1839 gave rise to an entire series of val uable works for the piano, including the famous Faschingsschwank aus Wien (ŒñCarnival of ViennaŒî). Schumann himself called the opus a Œñromantic spectacleŒî, and it met with a decidedly warm response from the critics: ŒñFlashes of humor appear at every turn; skyrockets of wit and unbridled merriment soar upwards into the skies from all sides.ŒîThe first public performance had to wait until 1860, after SchumannŒÍs death, when his widowClara presented Faschingsschwank to a Viennese audience. It was not lea st through this performance that Schumann's music found a home on the River Danube. The brilliant work has rightly remained in the standard repertoire to the present day.
