The Humoreske is one of the most extraordinary and underappreciated works in the Romantic literature. Despite its diminutive title, it really is a large single-movement work, almost 30 minutes in length, that binds together a staggering variety of contrasting materials within an intricate and innovative framework. Broadly speaking, the Op.20 has a sort of telescoped structure: you can break it into 5 broad movements, further subdivide it into 7, and then into 29 distinct sections each with their own distinct tempo directions (some of which are repeats). Completely absent are your usual Schumanisms – the descriptive titles, the Eusebius/Florestan stuff, the place-setting. Instead only austere performance directions loosely subdivide the work, although the music itself contains some of the most stunning (/stunningly quirky) ideas Schumann ever generated. The title “Humoreske” is hence better read as “a study in the humours” (in the sense of emotions), rather than the more conventional denotation of a short, fun bit of music.

1. Einfach (Simple), in Bb. ABCBA. The first section of this movement features one of Schumann’s loveliest melodies, beginning far away from the tonic on an F#, as if we’ve stumbled across the music mid-stream. But this F# foreshadows the melody’s development, as is modulates to Gb major (from which LH enters into a delicate canon with the RH). The Sehr rasch (Very fast) section which follows contains a lively melody whose first bar regularly leaps back into the fray (in forte) in order to provide some funny interjections. And the third section (Noch rascher, even faster) features some glorious fanfares, one of which features a tonic-dominant swing underpinned by a daringly sustained pedal.

2. Hastig (Hasty), in G minor. ABA. The star of the set. The middle stave contains an unplayed “inner voice” indicating a line implied by the RH semiquavers. One of the rare instances where a composer seems to acknowledge that a part of the score is really there to be heard in the mind, not in the sound. The middle section of the work features the spiciest texture of the entire work, in which the LH is instructed to play in tempo, while the RH must play “as though out of tempo”. The effect is one of the most startling, aurally confusing syncopations ever written for the piano (6:10; 33:04). And the surprises don’t stop there: the following passages feature ecstatic swirls of notes over static harmony, canonic marches, a dramatically dissonant diminished seventh descent over a lower and middle-voice D pedal, and a touching reprise of the opening material in which it arrives transfixed as a series of static long-held chords (7:51), before the original texture returns exactly where the chords left off, at the melody’s ninth bar. Most composers which spread this much invention over a couple of large-scale works: Schumann packs it all into under 5 minutes of music.

3. Einfach un zart (Simple and delicate), in G minor. ABA. The outer sections feature a plaintive melody over a dolefully rocking accompaniment. The middle section’s Intermezzo is a wondrous thing: relentlessly descending semiquavers punctuated by a upper-register Bb bell. The counterpoint of this section grows in complexity, eventually reaching a point where the semiquavers have become treacherous octaves, and the LH features a fully distinct countermelody. Eventually the Bb bell slowly fades, as if the semiquaver torrent is bearing us away from wherever it’s coming from.

4. Inning (Heartfelt), in Bb. ABA. A return to the mood of the opening, but with denser counterpoint. (The trick here is to make sure that the octaves don’t sound like octaves, but two melodies moving in parallel.) This movement is often grouped together with the next two to form a larger movement.

5. Sehr lebhaft (Very lively), in G minor. Running semiquavers out of which emerges a cunningly dotted octave-displaced melody (17:04; 44:10). Ends with a rather insectoid stretta that eventually grows into brilliance. The most energetic and possibly the funniest movement of the work.

6. Mit einigem Pomp (With some pomp), in C minor. The only movement not in Bb or its relative minor, a 4/4 polonaise that is equal parts grand, menacing, and ironic. The middle section features a canon between the LH and RH – but in a sharp contrast to the canon in the first moment, this one is bumbling and obtrusive, as if overeager to justify its place.

7. Zum Beschluss (To the resolution), in Bb. The only movement that Schumann marks out as such, with its own distinct title. A recitative is gradually built up into a densely chromatic, contrapuntal structure. After a gentle closing phrase is repeated thrice, each time in a higher register, the coda suddenly bursts in with a finale that could not be more different than the preceding material – it is both gloriously triumphant and also a little silly (think boozy trombones sloshing around the LH).