Film Overview

This release marks pianist Eugene Albulescu's multimedia show based on Schumann's Carnaval. The DVD has an animated slide show version with original illustrations by artist Linda Ganus. There is also a version with live footage from a concert performance. The soundtrack is the same, a LIVE rendition, available separately from Apple's iTunes music store, eMusic Rhapsody and Napster.

Robert Schumann is one of the most fascinating characters who spearheaded the early Romantic movement in music. His seminal piano work Carnaval (Op. 9) was composed around 1835, at a time when he had proposed to a young woman by the name of Ernestine von Fricken. At the same time, he was a live-in piano student under the wing of Friederich Wieck, and he fell in love passionately with Wieck's daughter, Clara.

Schumann was full of fantasy (bordering on madness) and his Carnaval,a possible representation of a carnival "inside his head", is packed with typical characters such as clowns, arlequins, plus famous people such as Chopin, Paganini, Clara herself, Ernestine, not to mention the different personalities of Robert Schumann, from the whimsical Eusebius to the revolutionary David.

Award-winning pianist Eugene Albulescu's take on Schumann's Carnaval, produced with original illustrations by Linda Ganus illustrates these vignettes in magnificent fashion, bringing the characters to life. A plot unfolds in this version, and the addition of the multimedia makes the whole listening experience easy to grasp, making this DVD a perfect educational tool.