Alfred Cortot: Schumann Kinderszenen No. 7, Träumerei, Scenes from Childhood

Alfred Denis Cortot (26 September 1877 15 June 1962) was a FrancoSwiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20thcentury classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight into Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann. Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the Frenchspeaking part of Switzerland, to a French father and a Swiss mother, Cortot studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Émile Decombes (a student of Frédéric Chopin), and with Louis Diémer, taking a premier prix in 1896. He made his debut at the Concerts Colonne in 1897, playing Beethoven s Piano Concerto No. 3. Between 1898 and 1901 he was a choral coach and subsequently an assistant conductor at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1902 he conducted the Paris premiere of Wagner sGötterdämmerung. He formed a concert society to perform Wagner s Parsifal, Beethoven s Missa solemnis, Brahms German Requiem, and new works by French