Pierre-Laurent Aimard earned a reputation as a pianist unafraid of new music, and he usually achieved high praise for his recordings of twentieth century music. In the early 2000s, however, he returned to older repertoire, with mixed results. This recording of Schumann's Études Symphoniques and Carnaval is one of his better efforts. The Symphonic Etudes are generally considered one of Schumann's more reasoned works, an exercise in composition as much as a set of exercises for the pianist. Aimard, however, focuses on the temperament of the etudes rather than the ins and outs of Schumann's thoughts on thematic development. It's the careful attention to Schumann's Florestan and Eusebius characters -- named in one of Schumann's early titles for the work "Etudes im Orchestercharakter von Florestan und Eusebius" -- that makes Aimard's performance work. He does always bring out the melody and always makes it move and feel like a singer's interpretation, particularly in variations such as in Etude No. 2, which has a Schubertian, pulsing, chordal accompaniment. Aimard controls his energy and enthusiasm in the more outgoing variations to make every phrase count, just as he brings delicacy and beauty to the more inward-looking "Posthumus Variations" inserted as a group between Etudes No. 7 and No. 8. The finale could stand to have even more of the boldness that he puts into Etude No. 6. Carnaval is all about character, and Aimard plays with each dance a little more freely than he does the etudes. For the most part his playing is drier (i.e., with less pedaling), than most pianists', making the set less truly dance-like and more stylized in nature. His interpretations range from swirling excitement to hazy dreaminess, but some may find the more relaxed pieces too vague. Aimard chooses to play the Sphinxes, the two four-note ciphers that are the keys to Schumann's themes in Carnaval, and they stick out like a twentieth century serial piece in the middle of the others. Aimard has a tendency to overthink these two popular Schumann works, but there are many reasons to appreciate his interpretations. The recording's sound is less dimensional than desired for these temperamental works.© TiVo

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The great Bulgarian pianist and composer of Greek origin Emile Naoumoff who was Nadia Boulanger’s last disciple, continues his collaboration with the Parisian label Melism Records presenting a recital entirely dedicated to Schumann’s music. The program consists of two cornerstone works of German Romanticism, the Carnaval, Op. 9, a cycle of 21 “scènes mignonnes” set on four notes, and the Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17. In the Carnaval, Schumann once more explores his imaginary characters inspired by those of Jean Paul, such as the contrasting personalities of Eusebius and Florestan, in a whirlwind of poetic atmospheres. In the Fantasie, Schumann uses Beethoven as his model, while also declaring his passion for Clara Wieck. The initial theme in C Major is inspired by the initial two letters of Clara’s first name through the German notes nomenclature’s C-A. It is undoubtedly one of the German composer’s greatest works where Emile Naoumoff offers his signature Finale’s coda, in the tradition of the ninetieeth century’s performance practices. © Melism

Five major piano cycles of early Romanticism, newly recorded by a major exponent of historically informed keyboard playing. Acclaimed as China’s "premier interpreter of Bach" by International Piano Magazine, the Chinese pianist Yuan Sheng has gained international recognition through his performances in the United States and China. The New York Times praised Sheng’s performances of Bach as "models of clarity, balance and proportion". His discography includes several of the composer’s major cycles such as the Goldberg Variations and Partitas. This depth of study and beauty of sound, informed by intensive study with Rosalyn Tureck, also mark out his newly recorded interpretations of five major piano cycles by Robert Schumann, who along with Chopin did more than any other composer to expand the horizons of the piano in the early decades of the 19th century and position it as the supreme articulation of a Romantic composer’s ambition in the hands of a single performer. Thus the present album makes an essential complement to Yuan Sheng’s extensive collection of Chopin’s work. While Sheng’s Chopin was recorded on an 1845, he touched here on a Streicher fortepiano from 1846. From the Davidsbündlertänze of 1837 through to the Waldszenen of 1849, the collection surveys the peaks of Schumann’s piano writing with a concentration on the composer’s gift for distilling a mood within a miniature. This mood-painting reaches its height in the seventh movement of Waldszenen which became an avatar of Romanticism, Der Vogel als Prophet, connecting worlds as seemingly distant as Rameau and Messiaen. The piano cycles presented here offer a wide variety of emotions, from the sublime calm of a summer evening, the intimacy of a dream, the soaring of young passion to the sinister atmosphere of a pitch-dark night. In Carnaval, Op. 9 and Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 Schumann presents characters from the Commedia dell’arte, each representing different characteristics and emotions. In the characters of Florestan and Eusebius Schumann finds his own innermost personae: the dreamlike Eusebius contra the passionate Florestan. The Kinderszenen is unique in the evocation of childhood and its contrasting emotions, the Waldszenen evoke nature’s realm, its natural, animal and human (the hunter..) inhabitants. © Piano Classics

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