If I'm listening to the Grieg Piano Concerto, it means I'm also listening to the Schumann.

The two almost always go together on recordings. They're both in A minor, and they both have a similar feel even though Schumann wrote his 23 years before Grieg.

I vacillate between the two.

The Schumann is more introspective and has such a delicate tenderness that I become lost in the moment.

There are days when I think Schumann is my favorite composer of all time. No one wrote more beautiful music than Robert Schumann. English composer Edward Elgar said, "Schumann is my ideal."

In 1854, Schumann attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Rhine. He was rescued by local fisherman. He asked his wife Clara to send him to a sanatorium because he feared he might do her harm.

There are several theories as to what afflicted Schumann. Syphilis, mercury poisoning, and bipolar disorder have all been suggested.

The most fascinating is a tumor that was discovered at the base of his brain during the autopsy. If it was a meningioma, then it might explain the music and vision hallucinations Schumann experienced.

He saw vision of angels and demons and claimed to hear exquisite music but could never remember it long enough to write it down.

There is a rumor that his wife and his student, Johannes Brahms, destroyed some of his last compositions because they thought the music was tainted my Schumann's madness.

Featured below is the incomparable Martha Argerich playing the 1st movement of Schumann's piano concerto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxGFP52NiAo