🇩🇪Robert Schumann ： Four Fugues No.2 in d-moll Op.72

This fugue is compelling for its concentrated contrapuntal writing, in which the subject and its answer appear successively while several independent voices remain closely connected. At the opening, listening carefully for the entry of each voice makes the shape of the subject and the overall flow easier to perceive. As the texture grows denser, the performer should preserve the hierarchy among the voices while maintaining a transparent tone that keeps the inner parts from being obscured. Rather than pressing the dynamics forward uniformly, shaping the phrasing in response to the subject’s entries and changes in tension is essential to balancing clarity with expression. Avoiding haste at the ends of phrases and paying attention to the exchanges between voices will make the continuity of the music even clearer.