A recognised specialist in the music of Robert Schumann (he recorded the complete works for solo piano between 2000 and 2010 for Alpha Classics), the French pianist eric Le Sage has devised this programme as a tribute to those who loved Schumann and to the woman he loved: Clara Wieck, of course - who would go on to become Clara Schumann despite her father's opposition to their marriage - but also Johannes Brahms, Gabriel Faure and Camille Saint-Saëns. Alongside their Variations on a Theme by Schumann, we find music by Robert, who also wrote Variations on a Theme by Clara Schumann, as well as two piano transcriptions of his Lieder, including the famous Du bist wie eine Blume, completed the day before their wedding.

In their new album 'DNA' Anouchka & Katharina Hack explore life in artistic families, deep connections and the passing down of musical language, placing creativity and humanity at the center of their work. They created an intimate duo programme that brings artistic heritage, inspiration and personal identity to life with works by Dvorak, Janacek, Schumann, and the Boulanger family. It is a rich blend of classical music, film music ('Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella') and chanson ('La Boheme')?, expanded with contemporary works, solo cello pieces, and improvisational elements.

The idea for a series of recordings devoted to the music of Robert Schumann arose from Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret's work on the Sonatas for violin and piano, and from a desire to expand the project by exploring the rest of his chamber music as well as his concertos - for Schumann treats the orchestra in a very chamber-music-like manner in his concertante works. Following the complete chamber music of Johannes Brahms, recorded on the same label, Pierre and Theo decided to launch this Schumann Collection, with the support of their long-standing collaborators in the field of chamber music: the Strada Quartet, Victor Julien-Laferriere, Florent Pujuila, Philibert Perrine, Felix Roth, Caroline Sypniewski, Sarah Fouchenneret, and Hortense Cartier-Bresson. All are soloists, quartet players and chamber musicians who also perform with orchestras, driven by a shared passion for Schumann's music, which lends itself particularly well to a series of live albums: there is a warmth, an urgency and a passion in the concert experience that are essential to performing this music well. Each concert was recorded by the b. records team with a view to this ambitious complete collection that you now hold in your hands.

The Places
The Canton of Ticino (German Tessin) is the only Swiss canton to have Italian as its official language. It is bounded on three sides by Italy and boasts spectacular mountain scenery, with waterfalls, rivers and lakes. The capital of the canton is now Bellinzona, but was earlier shared with Locarno and Lugano. A feature of the landscape lies in the great lakes that are within its territory, including part of Lago Maggiore, into which the Ticino and Maggia flow.

The Music
Robert Schumann was born in 1810 in Saxony, studied in Leipzig, lived in Dresden and, in 1850 moved to Düsseldorf as director of music to the city. He died in 1856, after a severe mental breakdown, from which he never recovered. In 1840, in spite of the objections of her father, he married the young pianist Clara Wieck, daughter of his former teacher. It was particularly after this marriage that he turned his attention to larger scale compositions, of which his Piano Concerto is an example, inspired by his wife. The other work heard here, the Intermezzi, Op. 4, dates from an earlier period, devoted in particular to the composition of shorter piano pieces, when a career as a pianist still seemed possible for him.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 51 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The tour takes US first to the carnival celebrations in Basel, with it's elaborate displays. There follows a visit to Vigeland Park in Oslo, with it's characteristic figures, the work of Gustav Vigeland. The music chosen for this tour is by Schumann. His Carnaval accompanies the carnival in Basel, flowers in the countryside are depicted in Blumenstuck and the granite figures in Vigeland Park, in Oslo, are matched with Scenes of Childhood.

Schumann at Pier2 is not a usual documentary, it explains the whole idea behind the project and it contains footage from rehearsals, comments from Paavo Järvi about the symphonies and the interpretation, biographical information about R. Schumann and footage of musicians who explain and play key themes and more. Stars of the film are the conductor Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and it´s filmed at „Pier2“, a former dockyard in the harbour of Bremen.

“Järvi's Schumann is most notably extremely exciting, performed with a lot of enthusiasm.“ -- Fono Forum

"Since their great Beethoven-Cycle Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie are one of the top ensembles." -- Crescendo

Repertoire:
Excerpts from
Symphony No. 1, Spring, Op. 38
Symphony No. 2, Op. 61
Symphony No. 3 Rhenish, Op. 97
Symphony No. 4, Op. 120

Bonus:
- The making of Schumann at Pier2

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo (whole DVD) / DTS 5.1 (concert film only)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English (whole DVD) / German, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese (concert film only)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 98 mins (concert film) + 18 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (DVD 9)

The three string quartets of Robert Schumann were composed in 1842 and I believe, are often overlooked and underrated, despite them being from his remarkable ‘chamber music year’, in favour of his Piano Quintet completed a few months after these three wonderful examples of quartet writing. In the same way that he studied the symphonies of Beethoven before he composed any of his own orchestral works, the year began with both Clara and Robert totally immersing themselves in the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven making a thorough study of form and structure. He had toyed with composing a quartet previously, but had discarded any musical plans a few years previously. He began to seriously contemplate their composition in February of 1842 but then suffered a severe bout of depression, with work only beginning on the A minor Quartet on the 4th of June and, after a remarkably creative period, he had completed all three by the 22nd of June, with Clara writing in their joint marriage diaries on the 29th that “ Robert has been very busy, completed 3 quartets … let us drink to the health of these 3 children, barely born and already completed and beautiful.” They were performed on the 13th September as a present for Clara who was celebrating her 23rd birthday, they were later published the following year.

All three quartets are in four movements, with Schumann striving to write pure music rather than any idea of programmatical music such as he employed in his Spring Symphony of the previous year, the result being beautiful examples of his art. The opening of the A minor Quartet reminds us that whilst he had studied the quartets of his great predecessors, Bach’s ‘48’ was never too far from his side, with its richly contrapuntal first theme a sort of homage to his hero. In the F Major Quartet, the opening slow introduction to the first movement leads into the first main theme that dominates the whole movement and almost pushes the second theme into the background. I particularly like the second movement which is a set of variations based upon the Larghetto from his Albumblätter of 1832. The Quartet in A Major is my favourite of the three and once again begins with a slow introduction, but here the it presents the music that will be developed later into the main theme of the movement. The final two movements are linked in the way that Schumann employs the dotted rhythm from the Adagio molto and develops it in the Allegro molto vivace to underpin the music of the rondo, the only time he uses a rondo as a finale in his chamber music, with its gavotte-like final theme or episode being an apt finale to Schumann’s quartet output.

I have greatly enjoyed the performances of the Engegård Quartet, they have a drive and enthusiasm that is infectious; these are performances that firmly place them near the top in my collection and well ahead of some highly respected and much vaunted performances including the Zehetmair Quartet (472 169-2) and the Melos Quartet (423 670-2) which was the performance through which I got to know the works back in the early 1990s. Their performance is a little brisker than my favourite performance by the Eroica Quartet (HMU 907270), whose period performance wins through for me, but when it comes to a modern version this has quickly become my favourite recording. This is helped by an excellent recorded sound and very good and informative booklet notes.

– MusicWeb International (Stuart Sillitoe)

This album centres on Ravel: Ravel the composer with Ma Mere l'Oye - originally a suite for piano four hands composed in 1910, orchestrated the following year to become a ballet and Ravel the arranger with Mussorgsky's famous Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as his orchestration of Schumann's Carnival, an embryonic project begun in 1914 for the great Nijinsky, who would ultimately never dance it. Only four excerpts were transcribed, and they were not published until 1975, on the centenary of Ravel's birth. Joseph Swensen, conducting the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, brings them back to life and infuses this colourful programme with his passion and infectious enthusiasm.

In this album two Swiss musicians - the cellist Andreas Graf and pianist Evelyne Grandy - transform what is essentially a song recital into a programme of lyrical miniatures for cello and piano. They thread their own arrangements of melodies by five fellow Swiss composers through some unfamiliar versions of well-known tunes, casting some long-standing favourites in new light and setting them alongside new delicacies.

The prizewinning guitar duo Bluvenduo present a versatile selection of transcriptions for two guitars, several of which have never previously been arranged for this format. The freshness and sense of discovery in Schubert's Sonata in A major is a product of the music's inherent songful lyricism, perfect material for a guitar duo. So, too, is Franck's Prelude, fugue et variation, a work of variety, elegance and light textures. The three Rachmaninov Preludes provide subtly contrasting moods, while Schumann's Kinderszenen offers a wealth of intimacy, excitement and expressive refinement.

With her debut album, Julia Lozowska compellingly affirms her place among the most distinctive pianists of her generation. This recording is far more than a display of virtuosity-it is a finely shaped artistic statement of remarkable depth, clarity, and refinement. Lozowska combines technical brilliance with a rare intellectual and emotional insight into the music, illuminating it's hidden structures-tonal relationships, motifs, and compositional sources of inspiration-with exceptional sensitivity and precision. The selection of well-known, large-scale works unfolds in her interpretation with an almost narrative force. Within expansive, imaginatively shaped forms, the album guides the listener through a deeply immersive emotional journey: from romantic unrest and longing, through moments of introspection and reflection, to a state of calm resolution and an ultimately hopeful, forward-looking perspective.

A generation before the now iconic Dinu Lipatti died of cancer at the age of 33, a much less remembered Polish pianist, Karol Szreter (1898-1933), died of the same disease at almost the same age. A pupil of Egon Petri, so of the Busoni school, his brief career began in central Europe and by the time of his death he was becoming acknowledged as a major figure in the pianistic world. His first recordings were made acoustically for VOX, where he recorded both as accompanist and soloist, and we have included one example. He was then taken up by the sister labels Parlophon and Odeon and the majority of these recordings are presented here. Of note is the first electrical recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 and three further sonatas, and - reflecting a different side of his art - five brilliant Strauss transcriptions where he reveals his stupendous technique.

This album brings together piano sonatas by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Schumann that reflect a specifically German approach to the form, distinct from the Viennese Classical tradition. Pianist Tianxu An explores works composed within a 26-year span, a period in which composers redefined the sonata through structural experimentation and greater performative expression. Central to the recording is a focus on the composers' detailed markings, including dynamics, pedalling, and phrasing, and how these shape interpretation in performance. Recorded in 2024, the release presents An's considered engagement with this repertoire and his interest in it's intellectual rigour and expressive breadth.

The Landscape of Clara Schumann unfolds like a finely drawn musical panorama: a recording that combines historical resonances, personal perspectives, and contemporary sound to create a multi-layered overall picture. Pianist Heike-Angela Moser - a descendant of Clara Schumann- dedicates herself here in a special way to the legacy of her ancestor; not in the form of a nostalgic retrospective, but as a lively, artistic exploration of origins and the future. A central element of this recording is the 1859 Schiedmayer fortepiano, whose historical character and fine timbre allow the repertoire to shine with a rarely heard authenticity. The Landscape of Clara Schumann is a poetic journey of sound: a dialogue between generations, between memory and renewal, between the historical breath of an instrument and the living voice of it's contemporary interpreter.

The fourth installment of Rendez-vous with Martha Argerich brings new fascinating recordings from the international Festival Martha Argerich in Hamburg, showcasing a superb lineup of soloists among which Lily, Sascha and Mischa Maisky, Edgar Moreau, Rosanne Philippens, Akane Sakai, Michael Volle and Sergio Tiempo. Particularly noteworthy are the highlights of a Chopin evening showcasing some of the most remarkable laureates of the Chopin Competition (Warsaw). This box set is a triumphant celebration of Martha Argerich's incomparable artistry and of the remarkable circle of musicians she is collaborating with.

On 7 August 2026, Metier Records is excited to present Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass from rising pianist Joseph Havlat, featuring music by Michael Finnissy, Cassandra Miller, and Robert Schumann. This ground-breaking album includes Schumann's Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations), Finnissy's response, or allusions to, this work in his RS Geistervariationen, and Miller's Philip the Wanderer as well as the title work, Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass, a rare co-composition between Finnissy and Miller, based on the well-known Afro-American spiritual. The compositions and working styles of Finnissy and Miller are a natural fit for this collaboration, the result of their long-standing friendship and correspondence. Transcription is another thread tying the works on this programme together, each composer having a unique approach. Finnissy's RS Geistervariationen (2021) contains large transcription sections of Brahms' piano duet Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op.23 and is heard alongside Schumann's original Geistervariationen. For Michael Finnissy, this process is in itself composition - he's working with the material as if it were his own, like portraiture seen through multiple lenses. As Joseph Havlat observes: 'These passages of transcribed Brahmsare melded and fused with Finnissy's own voice, creating ghostly echoes of bygone music, just as the variations themselves are ghosts of the original theme, and Schumann's theme a ghost of something else heard as well.' In between the variations are heard a series of Tropes in Finnissy's own compositional approach, acting as a musical commentary. Cassandra Miller started to write Philip the Wanderer (2012) in Canada but continued in the UK during a period of mentorship under Finnissy. Viewed by the composer as more of a 'translation' or 'adaptation' than a transcription, it draws it's source material from Mandowa II, a recording by Mozambican musician Zhukake Masingi, of which Miller generated a rhythmically hyper-rigorous computer-generated MIDI transcription. The three-movement piece reflects the rhythmic pushing-and-pulling found in the recording, with it's danceable and ultimately joyous irregularity. For their collaborative work, Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass, inspired by the spiritual sung by the great Marian Anderson, Finnissy and Miller wanted to capture something of the 'inflections' and the 'mood' of her performance and not just the tune itself. They wrote alternating sections, Cassandra Miller going first and Michael Finnissy following her tonal theme, not imitating each other but more like a slow-moving conversation, mirroring their own dialogue as they created the piece. Michael Finnissy is widely regarded as one of Britain's most important living composers and teachers, his prolific output including solo instrumental, chamber, and choral works as well as songs and works for stage. To mark his 80th birthday earlier this year, Metier released a 10-volume digital box set, Michael Finnissy: The Complete Metier Collection from 1998-2026. The composition methods of Canadian-British composer Cassandra Miller incorporate unique meditation-based practices, and her works have been performed by ensembles and orchestras across the UK, Europe, and the US. 'Music this uncalculatedly beautiful leaves you almost desperate with gratitude' -Alex Ross, The New Yorker. Australian pianist and composer Joseph Havlat is based in London. A leading interpreter of modern and contemporary music, he performs as a soloist and chamber musician in major concert venues around the UK, Europe, America, Japan, and Australia. He currently teaches piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music. His previous recording of Michael Finnissy's vocal music, Alternative Readings with Lotte Betts-Dean and the Marsyas Trio, was released on Metier.

Jimin Oh-Havenith dedicates this volume of her Schumann edition to his variations, which form the beginning, the core, and the conclusion of his unique piano oeuvre. In the fourth instalment of her widely acclaimed Schumann edition, Jimin Oh-Havenith turns to his works for piano in variation form. Three of the pieces recorded here occupy a singular place in Schumann's biography: both his first published composition, the Abegg Variations, and his final completed work, the so-called Ghost Variations, belong to this genre. The twelve Symphonic Etudes - situated chronologically at the heart of his piano output of the 1830s, long revered by pianists yet equally feared for their formidable technical demands - are likewise variations on a theme. Whereas the young Schumann, in the Abegg Variations, conjured a sparkling and virtuosic play on musical letters from the name of a Heidelberg acquaintance, the Ghost Variations unfold as a deeply moving dialogue between the gravely ill composer and his great models, Schubert and Mendelssohn Bartholdy. This extraordinary breadth of expression once again affords Jimin Oh-Havenith the opportunity to demonstrate the intensity and originality of her Schumann interpretation.

With this new volume in their ongoing Romantic Violin Concerto series, Hyperion proudly announces a new collaboration with the brilliant young British violinist Chloe Hanslip, the former child prodigy famously signed to Warner Classics at the age of just fourteen. Here, she lends her now mature talents to the second release in Hyperion's overview of Vieuxtemps' Violin Concertos. Henry Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) was a French violin virtuoso who, after the death of Paganini, was widely considered to be the best violinist in Europe. Besides being a brilliant player, he was a remarkably fine composer, as demonstrated in these, his first two concertos. Alongside the memorable violin fireworks, Vieuxtemps here shows a well-argued musical sensibility that straddles both the Classical and Romantic eras as well as the ability to write gorgeous, almost operatic slow movements in the best bel-canto tradition.

Following a Schubertian venture that has revealed, over the past few years, his immense stature as an interpreter of the lied, Matthias Goerne has now selected twenty or so of the little gems lovingly fashioned by Schumann in the year of his marriage (1840) or in the darker Düsseldorf period (1849-52). This anthology proves to be nothing less than a mise en abyme: an entire world seems to creep in between the fragrant flowers of the bouquet of ‘Myrtles’ and the nocturnal atmosphere of the ‘Six Poems and Requiem’. Yes: a whole world!

Supraphon's properly pitched, 24-bit remasterings of Sviatoslav Richter's 1956 Schumann Fantasiestücke, Waldszenen, and G minor Marsch convey a richness in the bass and boosted midrange presence quite different from the brighter, leaner sonic image characterizing Deutsche Grammophon's Dokumente and Originals series transfers. Richter habitually omitted Grillen and Fabel from Fantasiestücke, yet he played the other six pieces beautifully. The pianist's gorgeous legato touch justifies his unorthodox stretching out of Warum's last section, while his supple and sharply honed fingers make easy work of Aufschwung and Traumes Wirren. Although Richter likened the recording studio to "the torture chamber", he sounds free as a bird throughout his ravishingly tinted, technically dazzling Waldszenen. Lastly, a live November 1959 C major Fantasy stands out for a sense of risk and forward impetus in the first two movements that's largely absent from Richter's 1961 EMI studio effort, despite the cramped sonics. If you've missed these recordings in the past, don't hesitate now.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Evgeny Kissin is an interpreter who tends to shoot from the hip in the big Romantic masterpieces, resulting in many moments of genius rubbing up against baffling gaucheries. Fortunately, nearly everything comes together for Kissin in his late-1990s recordings of Schumann's Kreisleriana and C major Fantasy. The latter virtually explodes in the face of Kissin's ardent, volatile virtuosity, which dwells at opposite ends of the scale from Pollini's ironclad, symphonically inclined steadiness. Particularly noteworthy (all puns intended) are Kissin's spectacular leaps in the second-movement coda, where he cleanly delineates the outer voices most other pianists are merely content to hit accurately. The whiplash articulation and huge dynamic range Kissin brings to Kreisleriana's faster movements are cut from the same Dionysian cloth that shrouds the great Horowitz (Sony) and Argerich (DG) recordings. In short, the catalog claims no stromger coupling of these works, and with Kissin on top form, who can resist? [6/14/2004] --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Folklore takes the listener on a musical journey throughout 19th- and 20th-century France, Georgia, Hungary, and Spain. Through different styles and soundscapes, the compositions are united by the spirit of folk traditions and national character, as well as personal memories of the performers-Swiss-French cellist Christoph Croisé and Georgian pianist Ana Bakradze. Works originally conceived for their instrumental combination sit alongside transcriptions that fit their sound world like a glove, a testament to the popularity of all the music on this album. Siete Canciones Populares Españolas, a set of seven traditional Spanish songs by Manuel de Falla, is his most-arranged composition and among his most popular. Béla Bartók's Six Romanian Folk Dances, originally composed for solo piano, were drawn from melodies the composer recorded of folk musicians singing in the countryside of his Hungarian homeland. Hungarian influences infuse Pablo de Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), originally scored for violin and orchestra. Sulkhan Tsintsadze's Five Pieces on Georgian Folk Themes evoke childhood memories for pianist Ana, especially the fourth, a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her. The most substantial work on the album, Robert Schumann's Fünf Stücke i'm Volkston (Five Pieces in Folk Style), conjures the harmonies and rhythms of folk music. French national character imbues Nadia Boulanger's Trois pièces (Three Pieces) and works by her teacher Gabriel Fauré: his elegant Sicilienne-originally penned for orchestra but frequently adapted for cello and piano-and his ever-popular miniature "Après un rêve" (After a Dream) from his Trois Mélodies (Three Melodies). When asked about their own connections to this music and what they wish for the listener, Christoph and Ana agree: "Above all, joy! We share a love for the roots in these pieces and the inspiration they provided to the composers. For this album, we've selected our favourite miniatures. Some are well known, others are more personal, but they all connect to the spirit of folk traditions in some way. It's about the lasting pleasure of connecting through music we love."

Leif Ove Andsnes is a leading pianist of his time, known for his exceptional musicianship and subtil touch, his considerable technical flair being unfailingly put at the service of his interpretations. He was a pioneer for being the first home-trained superstar pianist to have emerged from Norway. This box is the story of a 20-year partnership that has yielded a rich seam of recorded treasures, first for Virgin and then for EMI. Running through this cornucopia of 34 albums (36 CDs), we find recurring themes: Grieg (Andsnes even recorded some Lyric Pieces on the composer's own piano at Troldhaugen), Nordic music in general, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Schubert.

Global cello sensation Hauser is back with Classic II, an all-new selection of his favorites among the most beautiful melodies in classical music, following up on the success of his 2020 album Classic. - For Classic II, Hauser reunites with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ziegler, and arranger/orchestrator Robin Smith, with whom the cellist worked closely in featuring the cello in the arrangement of each track. - Classic II reimagines instantly recognizable, song-like melodies by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Donizetti, Dvorak, Mahler, Mozart, Rachmaninoff and Schubert, most of them written for solo instruments, voices or an entire orchestra and never before adapted for the "voice" of the cello. Hauser also brings his singing style to two beloved melodies in the Baroque style - the Albinoni "Adagio" and the Adagio from Alessandro Marcello's famous Oboe Concerto - as well as a pair of contemporary pieces, Michel Colombier's "Emmanuel" and composer/pianist Yurima's "Kiss the Rain."

"Urgently eloquent." -- Gramophone [4/1987]

"Concentrated expressive intensity." -- Gramophone [11/1990]

"The Wanderer Fantasy is one of Schubert's most striking architectural achievements, and Perahia's intellectually rewarding account of it offers a vivid portrayal of the music's constantly evolving thematic structure." -- Gramophone [10/1995]

Schumann’s treatment of Goethe is a curiously uneven work, composed at various stages in the last decade of his life. Parts 1 and 2 consist of dramatic scenes, which lie somewhere between opera and oratorio, rather as in Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust; but Schumann’s third part takes the music on to an altogether higher plane, setting the mystical final scene from Goethe’s poem (the same text Mahler used in his Eighth Symphony). Recordings and performances of the complete work are rare, partly because of its length (nearly two hours) and the need for multiple soloists (ten in this performance); so this exceptionally fine new Sony set, recorded ‘live’ at Berlin concerts last year, is very welcome indeed. Bryn Terfel is an ideally ardent, troubled Faust, and sings a large amount of music with consummate authority. Mattila makes us feel for Gretchen, and the ensemble numbers are led by Barbara Bonney’s silvery high soprano. The choral singing (Swedish choirs prepared by the legendary Eric Ericson) is simply outstanding, as are the Tölz Boys Choir’s lusty contributions. Most importantly of all, Claudio Abbado conducts with flair and also with great sensitivity, and the members of the orchestra respond as if they believe in every note. If this set doesn’t win an award, there’s no justice in the world.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- BBC Music Magazine