In 1838 Robert Schumann complained: “The piano is becoming too narrow for me. I often hear in my current compositions a lot of things that I can hardly indicate”. Thus, in 1840, Schumann dedicated himself above all to art songs. Symphonies and chamber music works followed in the subsequent years. Schumann wrote his “Fairy Tale Pictures op. 113 for viola (or violin) and piano” in March 1851. An elegiac mood predominates in these four short character pieces. The four movements do not bear fairy-tale titles, but rather unpretentious tempo markings: “Not fast”, “Lively”, “Quickly” and finally “Slow, with melancholy expression”. Previously inaccessible, the autograph was consulted for the first-ever time for this edition, enabling us to clarify a number of questionable passages.
