I've always felt that one day I'll get to perform in front of an orchestra.

How long that takes, or what I perform is always up for a matter of debate but if I was asked to pick a piece now, something short and single movement driven, I could probably make that choice fairly quick.

Among all the romantic composers I fathom about, one I frequently forget about is Robert Schumann. He was one that seemed to capture the essence of the glory and tragedy of the "Romantic artist."

Schumann (1810-56) was brilliant, a talented pianist and an extraordinary composer. He was noted for one, as being obsessed with the "art" of music. Part of that love, and artistry stemmed from the love he possessed for another brilliant pianist, Clara Wieck, of whom he later married against her father's wishes. The marriage seemed to establish a precedent for Schumann's life, he was tormented by depression, attempted suicide and pronounced insane later in his life, where he eventually died in the asylum he had been prisoned to.

Perhaps the drama in his life was a spark in the beauty of his music? Schumann was an artist who also used the template of personal tragedy to produce such amazing works. Among those works are some of the most beautiful pieces for solo piano.

Among those works, is one of my favorites. The Introduction and Allegro Appassionato, Op.92 for Piano and Orchestra is a glowing testament to the beauty flowing through the notes.

Though Schumann's structural forms were roughly based in classical idioms, his music was keenly romantic in its intimacy, deep emotionalism and glowing lyrical beauty. It was interspersed with burst of energy that waken the heart in their exuberance.

Harmonically, to talk of weird tendencies, Schumann had the uncanny ability to make music taste like chocolate.

All is understandable for a man who lived to create eternal "art." Though I'll have to admit the chocolate thing still stands out as being slightly random, for a man once sentenced for being insane, it almost makes more sense in that light.

All the above qualities are evident in the Introduction and Allegro. It was completed in 1853 and premiered two years later in 1855. The piece opens with a tender and mysterious like beauty in the piano, its melody in a supremely romantic quality. From the gradual rise of the Introduction flows a burst of abiding energy and the Appassionato is perhaps the most important label in the piece. Ensuing is a wandering soul filled with invention, fantasy and to quote one historian, "energy-delicious chocolate."

In examining the majesty of this work, it hardly seems possible that in the year between the composition of the work and its premiere, Schumann committed himself to the asylum in Endenich, where he remained until his death in 1856.

Now, I'm off to find a Hershey bar or of something equivalent in "chocolatey" goodness.