Schumann – Am Kamin from Kinderszenen

The idea here is to uncross your thumbs. “Keep your hands small”, Robert Turner told me. I had to fly to Berkeley to take a lesson from him, but looking back on it, I would have flown to the moon to get those four words of advice–the most valuable I ever got from any teacher. If only I could have studied with him from the beginning…

In this recording made about 35 years ago, I’m using more or less this fingering, with some improvements (= less stretching) in the middle section:

Am_Kamin