Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago

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Watch the Albanian American pianist Iris Elezi play the mercurial Papillons, one of Schumann's earliest works. Written when the composer was just 21 years old, the set of pieces – which begins with a six-bar introduction before launching into a variety of dance-like movements – is meant to represent a masked ball and was inspired by Jean Paul's novel 'Flegeljahre'.

Iris shares one of her poems with us, which you can enjoy reading as she performs:

Float with the clouds
Fly with the rain
Move with the wind
Stay with the sun
Sing with the music
Follow your heart
Walk through your path
Find your own light
Step between the doubt
circle it around with love
The spark of life
The breath of God
The walk of the flowers
The wonders of the heart
The unfolding of the mind
The destiny has arrived
in love with the art
to share the music
with an open heart 🎶🎵