Search - Schumann, Maria-João Pires :: Schumann: Kinderszenen / Waldszenen

Patrician Readings by Pires

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 07/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Schumann's delightful Kinderszenen, The Scenes from Childhood, are among his most original and attractive works. Strikingly enough they were composed before the Schumann family became filled to overbursting with new young faces! All of the works are very brief minatures, and each has its own personality. The Waldszenen, or Forest scenes, continue this approach with nine more individual miniature tone poems or poetic sketches. The generous Cd next has three charming little works from the Bunter Blatter, Op 99, an album about falling leaves and the colors of that season, and concludes with five equally short selections from the Albumblatter, simply, album leaves, tiny pieces where again brevity and directness is all as Schumann depicts the moods of Fall. The short Praludium adds a nice close to the selection.



This Cd is exactly the same as the Apex issue from Warner Classics, but adds an attractive cover and costs three dollars less. These performances were originally issued on Erato in 1985 from recordings made in August, 1984. So these are a quarter century old now. In Europe this exact Erato Cd was issued in 1996; the more expensive identical Pires Shcumann Apex issue here in Amazon USA is priced at a budget level in Amazon UK. Once again, it pays to shop around a bit, especially in such a confused marketing universe!



How good is Pires in this all so tricky composer's music? To my ear, pretty darn good! At times she leans to the serious and reflective a bit more than I'd care for - think Arrau - but it's a joy to hear such consistently distinquished piano playing. Pires shares with the best pianists the ability to maintain tempos without losing a sense of place - more difficult than people who don't play the piano would ever imagine. Her pedaling is superb, and Pires seemingly can stop on a dime and veer off instantly into a new pace - a most valuable skill in the ever-shifting universe of Robert Schumann's keyboard works!



Although this recording was made some time ago, the engineers did a fine job capturing not only Pires' fuller volumes but also her velvet soft touches. As mentioned, Schumann is always an extremely difficult composer to bring off - too often a pianist fails to vary the colors and tones enough, and the music begins sounding too much alike. Too, in very brief episodic compositions such as those here a performer must seize and hold the essence of each work from the very start. That Pires succeeds so well and so often with so many of these is remarkable! Finally, Pires' achievement in sustaining a fully integrated tone at the ready wherever she is on the keyboard without losing subtley or sacrificing wide variety of touch is proof we are here listening to a great master. This is finished piano playing on a very high order indeed, and a joy to sit back and follow in score.



Highest recommendation!



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