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.

Thibaut Garcia pays tribute with El Bohemio to the Paraguayan guitar virtuoso and composer Agustín Barrios (1885-1944). As Garcia explains, "Barrios is an essential composer in the guitarist's repertoire. His music can be described as a skilful mix of South American popular music - inspired by the jungles of Paraguay - and the Romanticism of Chopin and Schumann, composers he idolised." El Bohemio duly complements 16 varied works by Barrios himself with three of his transcriptions of famous pieces by Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven. In addition, the album includes readings of two of Barrios's poems: 'Bohemio', which lends the album it's name, portrays the composer as a wandering troubadour; 'Profesión de fé' (Profession of faith) honours the Guarani, the indigenous people of Paraquay.

THE ROYAL EDITION - SCHUMANN:

"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

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

Kurt Masur approaches the symphonies easily and gracefully. He is capable of a gesture of proper grandeur, as at the opening to No. 1, but on the whole he treats them more lightly... The delightful Scherzo to No. 3, marked moderato, is played rather solemnly by Sawallisch, where Masur touches elegantly on its Leindler grace and its easy flow up and down the arpeggios. Opening No. 4, Sawallisch responds to the very Beethoven-like scoring with similar grandeur of utterance; Masur is quieter, seeking out the Romantic tinge in the bassoon and middle string phrases...

-- Gramophone [9/1976]
reviewing the original LP release

The three works on this recording are collections of short pieces, strung together and forming a cohesive whole—a form which Schumann himself invented, developed and brought to perfection. Davidsbündlertänze (Dances of the League of David) was written after Schumann’s engagement to Clara Wieck, to whom he wrote, ‘If I have ever been happy at the piano, it was when I was composing these.’ Papillons (Butterflies) is the work of a youthful, unfettered imagination, and Carnaval is one of his most popular pieces, a display of both technique and emotion. Boris Giltburg, who took first prize at the 2013 Queen Elisabeth Competition, is one of today’s most exciting young pianists, lauded for his ‘massive and engulfing technique, supporting interpretations that glow with warmth and poetic commitment’ (Gramophone).

SCHUMANN: SZENEN AUS GOETHES

Works For Cello And Piano

Complete Violin Sonatas

Complete Trio Works

Complete Works For Choir A Cap

Complete Duo Works

The year 2005 marked the bicentennial anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth, whose's writing has been the treasury of the world. Internationally renowned tenor Poul Elming compiled an album of Lieder by great composers inspired Andersen's poetry.

...[C]ommendable command and spirit [in Carnaval]... I have no hesitation in stating my preference for Cecile Licad, who, for me, has more of the charm, the grace, the imaginative fantasy and last but not least, the immediacy required by the young Schumann on the dance floor. The first two numbers alone at once make that clear... "Pierrot" in its turn brings a far more subtle variety of touch and shading from Licad... [I]t is Licad, more scrupulous in concern for the composer's detailed expressive markings, who I would as willingly have in my own library as the volatile Gavrilov (EMI) and the deep thinking Arrau (Philips).

Though the playing time of Licad's mellowtoned, true-to-life disc is only 52 minutes, her programme artfully spotlights the first five years of Schumann's composing life, working backwards from 1835. Papillons, with its many pre-echoes of Carnaval, is also played with an irresistibly lightfingered spontaneity and musical grace. Yet there is nothing superficially kittenish in Licad's approach. Her characterization is potent again here, with very strongly marked contrasts of tempo and dynamics. And again I would be as happy with this account of the work as any of the catalogue's 'bigger' names. Finally, there's the Toccata, sketched when Schumann was a mere 19 years old, though not emerging in its definitive form for another five years. Licad makes light of all technical problems in a reading nevertheless infinitely more memorable for musical character than mere prestidigitation.

-- Gramophone [1/1991]

Schumann: Piano Music

I could never understand why this wonderful cycle failed to make an impact when it was first issued. Kubelik's sensitivity to detail, his refusal to bully Schumann's vulnerable structures and his ability to penetrate occasional thickets of orchestration, make these 1978-9 sessions especially memorable. Just listen to the cheeky bassoon backing clarinet, 144' into the Spring Symphony's fourth movement, the limpid phrasing of the Rhenish Symphony's Nicht schnell third movement, or the to-ing and fro-ing between first and second violins (usefully separated, as virtually always with Kubelik) in the last movement of the Second, Only the first movement of the Fourth seems to me a little heavy-handed, but then the poetry of the Romanze and the exuberance of the finale more than make amends.

First movement repeats are observed and the playing throughout is rich in felicitous turns of phrase. The sound, though, is a minor stumbling block: violins are thin (one of the few disadvantages of having them separated is that their massed tone becomes mildly diluted), brass a little fuzzy and the whole production less focused than, say, Sawallisch's EMI mid-price Dresden set. But, for me, Kubelik's insights are too varied and meaningful to miss, and I derive as much pleasure from them now as I did 13-odd years ago, when they were first issued on LP. What with a stirring Manfred Overture added for good measure, they constitute exceptional value for money.

-- Gramophone [7/1993, reviewing Sony 48270 and 48269]

SCHUMANN GREAT HITS

"This is one of the most beautifully performed Schumann discs I have had the pleasure of hearing, regardless of vintage---an absolute winner in all respects. Three multi-sectional pieces are involved, all of them difficult of mood and character to capture and sustain. Haefliger's marked rhythmic sense, vigorous in the extraverted movements but also sufficiently free, perfectly displays the gesture of mid-19th-century romanticism, but it is his tender side that for me so wonderfully conveys the lyricism of Schumann. Haefliger in fact plays the reflective pieces as though they were Lieder, highly appropriate considering the sterling abilities of the pianist's father, the tenor Ernst Haefliger. Therefore, I write of singing, soaring lines, hoping this will convey the kind of poetry one can hear on this gorgeously rendered and reproduced disc."

-- Beth Jacques, Stereophile

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Classical Music

Some of Robert Schumann’s rarest piano music can be heard in this disc, which ranges from his precocious Titania Overture arrangement to the Ghost Variations, the theme of which, he told his wife Clara, had been sung to him by angels. His Beethoven Studies survive in three sources, whilst his admiration for his contemporaries Schubert and Chopin is shown by two works containing a series of variations. The 1836 Third Sonata is included in the pre-1853 revision and also included is the original version of what became his very popular Toccata, Op. 7.

SCHUMANN: Romances and Ballads

Rudolf Serkin's gaunt tone and impassioned phrasing, along with Eugene Ormandy's robust, alert support, have long distinguished this 1964 recording of Schumann's A minor concerto as one of the catalog's finest.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing Sony 93908]

I could never understand why this wonderful cycle failed to make an impact when it was first issued. Kubelik's sensitivity to detail, his refusal to bully Schumann's vulnerable structures and his ability to penetrate occasional thickets of orchestration, make these 1978-9 sessions especially memorable. Just listen to the cheeky bassoon backing clarinet, 144' into the Spring Symphony's fourth movement, the limpid phrasing of the Rhenish Symphony's Nicht schnell third movement, or the to-ing and fro-ing between first and second violins (usefully separated, as virtually always with Kubelik) in the last movement of the Second, Only the first movement of the Fourth seems to me a little heavy-handed, but then the poetry of the Romanze and the exuberance of the finale more than make amends.

First movement repeats are observed and the playing throughout is rich in felicitous turns of phrase. The sound, though, is a minor stumbling block: violins are thin (one of the few disadvantages of having them separated is that their massed tone becomes mildly diluted), brass a little fuzzy and the whole production less focused than, say, Sawallisch's EMI mid-price Dresden set. But, for me, Kubelik's insights are too varied and meaningful to miss, and I derive as much pleasure from them now as I did 13-odd years ago, when they were first issued on LP. What with a stirring Manfred Overture added for good measure, they constitute exceptional value for money.

-- Gramophone [7/1993, reviewing Sony 48269 and 48270]

Florian Uhlig draws near the conclusion of the first truly complete edition of the solo piano music of Robert Schumann with this 9th installment in the series featuring the Kinderszenen op. 15 and the Novelletten op. 21 surrounding hitherto largely neglected contemporaneous pieces. An exclusive hännsler Classic artist praised for his cohesive concert programs, Mr. Uhlig made his orchestral debut at the London Barbican in 1997, and since then a busy performing schedule has taken him to the concert halls of Berlin, New York, London and Paris, as well as Hong Kong, Reykjavik and Cape Town.

Classical Music

SCHUMANN Piano Sonatas: No. 1; No. 2; No. 3 • Carlo Grante (pn) • MUSIC & ARTS 1220 (79:16)


We don’t get the three sonatas on one disc too often; as you can see from the timing, these apples barely fit into the barrel. So on one plane of gratitude we must acknowledge Carlo Grante’s efforts in this regard. His playing has also been generally well received in these pages, though if one searches the article archives, a preponderance of relatively unknown material predominates. Recording Schumann is definitely a step into the mainstream, and as such the requirements get a little tougher for the discerning record collector, though again, convenience cannot be easily overestimated.


But many will, in the case of the sonatas, attempt to make the argument that grouping them together is a silly exercise anyway, since, well, the Schumann sonatas aren’t really sonatas anyway, are they? I guess it all depends on what your definition of sonata is, and whether juxtaposed in extremis , origins can ultimately constitute the same sort of name that fits a form that Mozart would have easily recognized. The No. 1, for instance, began life as an interpolation from his op. 4 Intermezzos, used as the middle Scherzo movement. A later Fandango, composed the same year, would join the conglomeration as the rather sophisticated first movement. So already we are left wondering whether “sonata” is telling-true or simply an afterthought because no better title came to mind.


Sonata No. 2 started life as a concerto without piano; it was to see at least three other incarnations. In the second edition, a Scherzo fourth movement was added, with significant revisions to movement 1. This edition on the present recording uses the added Scherzo, but retains the first thoughts of the original first movement. This is a rather crazy work (in a wonderful way) that features a unique “Clara” theme in the third movement, followed by a series of variations, and the superimposed contrasting rhythms of the last movement making it especially appealing to a composer like Brahms, who adored it. The final sonata had its origins before the other two, but was completed later. Clara herself thought it “not too incomprehensible,” but admitted that the public and critics didn’t understand it. It is the least popular of the sonatas, but even so has much to offer the Schumann-starved.


But getting back to the original question, are these real sonatas? In the end, yes, for they do follow the form more or less closely, even though Schumann felt as if he were storytelling in the most basic narrative sense of the word, while using the Classical structure as a basis for his methodology. In the end, we don’t really care though, for the music is too engaging and rewarding to be overly concerned with the formal scaffolding that Schumann uses to present it to us.


I admire very much Carlo Grante’s recent release on this same label of piano concertos by Mozart, using the Godowsky cadenzas. His playing there is clean, efficient, well rounded tonally, and masculine, while avoiding any sort of hard edge. I find much of the same approach on this album. It is some of the driest Schumann I have ever heard, Grante seeming to forego pedal unless absolutely necessary, and when he does use it, there is such a judicious and economical application that you still come away amazed at how well some of the inner lines of Schumann’s always-critical middle voices are heard. On the other hand, when I listen to the likes of Earl Wild (Sonata 1) or Marc-André Hamelin (Sonata 2), I find a certain flair and wildness that I am missing here, where the confines of ultimate control dominate all conceptions. And Eric Le Sage’s ongoing series (the three sonatas already out and available) sport more resonant and deeply felt sound than what Music &Arts gives us here. Nonetheless, I am reluctant to rain on Grante’s parade, as what he does here is quite admirable and will find many takers. I count myself among them, even if my ultimate requirements need a little more moisture.


FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter

SCHUMANN: FRAUENLIEBE UND LEBE