Why Is Schumann’s Kinderszenen Not Children’s Practice Music?

Kinderszenen often appears in piano study collections, and its titles all point towards a child's world, so it is easily mistaken for a set written for children to play. Schumann composed the thirteen pieces in 1838 and later described them as recollections by an adult for adults. The final piece is even called The Poet Speaks. The viewpoint is no longer simply that of a child at play, but of an adult looking back and trying to understand childhood.

That changes the priorities in performance. Short phrases, clear rhythms and relatively spare textures do not make the music childish. In Of Foreign Lands and People, the recurring melody needs to retain its sense of distance as it moves through different voices and harmonies. Nor does Träumerei become profound merely through a slow tempo and heavy pedal. Its melodic line must remain continuous, but the inner voices and bass still need clarity; time may expand without losing its pulse.

The real difficulty of the cycle is that very little material must contain two layers of time. On the surface are a child's games, requests, fears and sleep, while behind them is always an adult act of looking. An excessively cute performance reduces memory to play-acting; an excessively sentimental one erases the music's simplicity. A better interpretation keeps childhood's directness while allowing the listener to feel the distance created by recollection.

https://imslp.org/wiki/Kinderszenen%2C_Op.15_%28Schumann%2C_Robert%29

https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/random043/95031761.html