Schumann - Etudes Symphoniques [CH]: Classical CD Reviews- Apr 2003 MusicWeb(UK)

Classical CD and DVD reviews. MusicWeb is not a subscription site and it is our advertisers that pay for it. Please visit their sites regularly to see if anything might interest you. Purchasing from them keeps MusicWeb free.

Classical Editor: Rob Barnett Founder Len Mullenger

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Toccata in C op. 7, Etudes Symphoniques op. 13 (including 5 posthumous variations), Fantaisie in C, op. 17

Earl Wild (piano)
Recorded at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, September 19th 1974 (op. 7 - live), Fernleaf Abbey, Columbus, Ohio, October 2nd 1990 (op. 13), October 3rd (op. 17)
IVORY CLASSICS 64405-71001 [72’ 45"]

AVAILABILITY

For further information and sales visit www.IvoryClassics.com or contact e-mail@IvoryClassics.com

Not much to say about most of this except that it’s just marvellous! Earl Wild has been known to us for decades as technically one of the finest-equipped pianists around, with maybe a suspicion that he was at his best unravelling impossibly complicated works of the old virtuoso school, tossing them off with a rare abandon, rather than as a profound interpreter of the basic classics. The confident, up-front but rather noisy performance of the Toccata from a live concert in London might seem to bear this out, though this is a difficult piece to humanise. The 1990 studio recordings suggest that, if the suspicion was ever founded, old age has brought a mellowing and a deepening without any loss of technical armoury.

Most remarkable of all is the Fantaisie. Wild knows when to surge forward, when to relax, when to melt and dream. His basic tempo in the first movement may seem fast, but it is very close to Schumann’s own markings, and the way in which Wild manages to breathe in this tempo, to drift away from it and then come to it without losing sight of the overall structure is sheer mastery. Sheer mastery of another kind is to be heard in his ability to clarify the most teeming textures and to produce a sound that is always rounded and singing in the heaviest passages. The second movement is properly exuberant (no heavy-footed march, this) and the steadily growing fires of the finale are expressed with much poetry. This performance goes straight among the elite.

The inclusion of the five posthumous variations (which Schumann himself removed) in the Etudes Symphoniques is theoretically not such a brilliant idea since they are more conventional in style than those of the "approved" version which is therefore stronger. But anything written by Schumann is surely worth knowing and they could not find a better advocate. Wild is the master of every mood, from mercurial to passionate, from stormy to inwardly romantic.

With recordings worthy of the occasion, this is essential for all who love the piano, Schumann or both.

Christopher Howell

Advertising Rates
Visitor stats
MusicWeb International
has over 21,000 Classical CD reviews on offer

Gerard Hoffnung Concerts &
The Bricklayer Story

New Releases

MusicWeb sells the Polish
catalogue CDAccord
£10.50 post free W-W

MusicWeb sells the
Arcodiva catalogue
£12.00 post free W-W

Price Reduction: £11.00
post-free world-wide
Try it and see - Sale or Return

MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues:
Prices include postage

[Acte Préalable £13.50]
[Arcodiva £12.00]
[Ashgate Music Books]
[Avie from £6.25]
[British Music Society £13.49]
[CDACCORD from £10.50 ]
[ClassicO £12.50]
[Hortus £14.99 ]
[Lyrita ONLY £11.00 ]
LYRITA Sale or Return
[Onyx £12.00 ]
ONYX Sale or Return
[REDCLIFFE £11 ]
[Tactus £11.50 ]
[Talent from £12.00 ]
[Toccata Classics £12.50 ]

DISCS OF THE YEAR 2007


Return to Index

Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board. Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer..

You can purchase CDs and Save around 22% with these retailers: