A Tuneful Miniaturist With a Ton of Soul By JAMES R. OESTREICH

January 16, 2004
A Tuneful Miniaturist With a Ton of Soul By JAMES R. OESTREICH

THE music of Robert Schumann (1810-56) is something of a litmus test for performers. Quite simply, it tends to attract the finest, the most musical.

There are no easy effects in his music. Although many of his works offer technical challenges, they are not of the sort likely to wow audiences in and of themselves. Even in his concertos, there is little room for empty virtuosity. But lyricism is everywhere, and it works like catnip on musicians with real soul.

Still, the deep-seated affection of some is not always matched by a profound respect from all. It is easy to condescend to Schumann, to discount his stunning originality by attributing it in part to the meanderings of a mind addled by syphilis. A master of the miniature, he had relatively little success in large-scale ventures. His theatrical works and big choral pieces are little known. Even his symphonies have long been faulted for a perceived murkiness in orchestration and texture.

Yet those symphonies seem to be everywhere at the moment. Kurt Masur leads the New York Philharmonic in the Third this weekend in Purchase, N.Y., and at Avery Fisher Hall. Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin perform all four at Carnegie Hall next week in concerts that also include the concertos and other works. Teldec, meanwhile, has released recordings of the symphonies by Mr. Barenboim and the Staatskapelle.

All this comes just a season after Wolfgang Sawallisch presented the four symphonies with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie. And that orchestra has since released its own recordings of the symphonies.

With this impetus, the classical music critics of The New York Times are encouraging a closer listen to Schumann generally, with recommendations of favorite CD's. Their selections are on Page 28.


Robert Schumann: A Tuneful Miniaturist With a Ton of Soul
By JAMES R. OESTREICH

Here are some favorite Schumann recordings of the classical-music critics of The New York Times. Availability is hard to determine in the current state of the market. Most of the recordings here can be found on Amazon.com or in major record stores. CD's range in price from $12.99 for one CD to $21.99 for a two-CD set and $40.99 for four CD's. (An introduction appears on Page 1 of Weekend.)

SYMPHONIES (4), VIOLIN CONCERTO, ANDANTE AND VARIATIONS. Leonidas Kavakos, violinist; Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor and pianist; others; Philadelphia Orchestra (with Clara Schumann songs, sung by Thomas Hampson; Philadelphia Orchestra; three CD's).

PIANO QUINTET, PIANO QUARTET IN E FLAT. Menahem Pressler, pianist; Emerson String Quartet (Deutsche Grammophon 445 848-2).

STRING QUARTETS NOS. 1 AND 3. Zehetmair Quartet (ECM New Series 1793).

VIOLIN SONATAS NOS. 1 AND 2. Gidon Kremer, violinist; Martha Argerich, pianist (Deutsche Grammophon 419 235-2).

''DAS PARADIES UND DIE PERI,'' ''REQUIEM FÜR MIGNON,'' ''NACHTLIED.'' Barbara Bonney, soprano; Christoph Prégardien, tenor; others; Monteverdi Choir; Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv 289 457 660-2; two CD's).

I DON'T get it: this eternal carping about unimaginative orchestration and awkward voice-leading in Schumann's symphonies. These ebullient creations are what they are, and they work for me every time -- in a good performance, that is.

At the moment, I'm particularly fond of Wolfgang Sawallisch with the Philadelphia Orchestra in performances recorded live last season and repeated at Carnegie Hall. There is nothing here either lightweight or heavy-handed, and the freshness of Mr. Sawallisch's approach is all the more remarkable given the parlous state of his health over the last year; the Second was recorded late in the season, and he began canceling appearances soon after. The ''Spring'' Symphony performance is a special treasure, quite possibly addictive. Mr. Sawallisch, a superb pianist, is heard in that role in a chamber work, the Andante and Variations, and in songs by Clara Schumann.

In advance, Teldec has issued a memento of another Carnegie series: Daniel Barenboim's with the Staatskapelle Berlin next week. I find these interpretations of the symphonies less persuasive at first hearing, a little fussy and studied in their pushings and pullings. But I'm eager to hear whether those gestures and others might sound more spontaneous in the Carnegie concerts.

An enduring favorite among the symphonies is Christoph von Dohnanyi's set with the Cleveland Orchestra on Decca. In some ways, this orchestra -- lithe, clear and precise -- has long been an ideal Schumann instrument, whether led by George Szell, Mr. Dohnanyi or, presumably, the relative newcomer Franz Welser-Möst. (The Szell recordings on Sony are also classics.) The orchestra's virtues are most apparent in the mercurial scherzo of the Second Symphony, which Mr. Dohnanyi liked to carry in his trunk as an encore.

Although Schumann's chamber music also comes in for some carping, the Piano Quintet is almost universally recognized as a masterpiece. To the worthy renditions cited elsewhere on this page, I will add the collaboration between Menahem Pressler and the Emerson String Quartet. These are all chamber musicians of abundant gifts, wide experience and distinctive styles, and it is fascinating to hear the musical ground shift between Mr. Pressler's relative mellowness and the Emerson's characteristic fire: a scintillating mix.

In music that does not strain to sell itself, fire is often a good thing; conviction is essential. Those qualities pervade the other chamber discs listed here as well. The Zehetmair Quartet's performances make a persuasive case for two of Schumann's string quartets, especially the First, as masterworks. Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich cannot do as much with the slighter material of two violin sonatas, but their urgent performances make the works sound eminently respectable and, more important, appealing.

Veering way off the beaten path, John Eliot Gardiner offers lovely performances of three Schumann choral pieces dripping with good tunes.

''Das Paradies und die Peri'' is a large-scale work in three parts, and though it cannot be said that the drama is maintained consistently, each part builds to a compelling finale. The melting lullaby that ends the second part is itself worth the price of a disc, maybe both.

Robert Schumann: A Tuneful Miniaturist With a Ton of Soul
By JOHN ROCKWELL

Here are some favorite Schumann recordings of the classical-music critics of The New York Times. Availability is hard to determine in the current state of the market. Most of the recordings here can be found on Amazon.com or in major record stores. CD's range in price from $12.99 for one CD to $21.99 for a two-CD set and $40.99 for four CD's. (An introduction appears on Page 1 of Weekend.)

''KREISLERIANA.'' Hélène Grimaud, pianist (with Brahms's Piano Sonata No. 2; Denon CO-73336).

PIANO QUINTET. Arthur Rubinstein, pianist; Guarneri Quartet (with Brahms's Piano Quintet; RCA Red Seal 09026-5669-2).

''DICHTERLIEBE,'' ''LIEDERKREIS'' (OP. 24), SONGS. Ian Bostridge, tenor; Julius Drake, pianist (EMI Classics 5 56575 2).

SYMPHONIES (4). Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim (Teldec 2564 61179-2; two CD's).

''SCENES FROM GOETHE'S 'FAUST.' '' Bryn Terfel, Karita Mattila and other soloists; Tölzer Knabenchor, Swedish Radio Chorus, and Eric Ericson Chamber Chorus; Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Claudio Abbado (Sony Classical S2K 66308; two CD's).

THIS selection of favorite Schumann recordings is not based on exhaustive comparisons of every performance of every masterpiece. That way lies madness. (Of course, some might argue that it's already kind of mad to own 25 different performances of the ''Rhenish'' Symphony, some in multiple formats.) So my choices are based partly on memory and nostalgia, although, to 'fess up, I did do some semi-exhaustive relistening. I have chosen one recording in each musical genre.

Schumann is best known as a composer for the piano. I've long had a weak spot for the playing of Hélène Grimaud, especially in German repertory. Her recording of ''Kreisleriana,'' coupled with Brahms's Sonata No. 2 (everyone couples Schumann and Brahms, for biographical as well as musical reasons), made when she was only 19, combines rangy technique, vivid personality and a rich sense of the Romantic performance tradition.

Schumann's chamber music often involves the piano. Arthur Rubinstein's recording of the Piano Quintet in E flat with the Guarneri Quartet, besides being a magisterial performance, is also a tribute to Rubinstein's many superb Schumann recordings, so influential in shaping my tastes.

The eight-volume series of complete Schumann songs on Hyperion belongs in every serious collector's library. But for a single disc, I would choose Ian Bostridge's grouping of the Opus 24 ''Liederkreis,'' ''Dichterliebe'' and seven other songs, handsomely accompanied by Julius Drake. Mr. Bostridge has an ethereal tenor, sometimes so silvery and hushed that you're almost embarrassed by the intimacy. But he can rise to the bolder, more despairing songs, like ''Ich Grolle Nicht,'' too. A remarkable disc.

Schumann's orchestral music is also wonderful, despite all the controversies that have surrounded his orchestration: thick and inept, or rich and Romantic? I tend toward the latter, but there have been wonderful performances in all styles and all kinds of instrumentation. As much as I regret not including Arturo Toscanini's fulminating account of the ''Manfred'' Overture, I will stick with the symphonies.

For decades I preferred Leonard Bernstein's raw, impassioned performances with the New York Philharmonic (better than his later, slicker versions with the Vienna Philharmonic). I love them still, but Daniel Barenboim's new set with the Staatskapelle Berlin, the same group he will lead in Schumann at Carnegie Hall next week, is wonderfully lyrical and idiomatic, and in superb sound as well. It's way better than his earlier set with the Chicago Symphony.

Finally, large-scale, quasi-operatic, quasi-oratorio effusions: Schumann could imbue his instrumental music and songs with plenty of drama, but like some other great composers, he never found his footing in opera. Still, his ''Scenes From Goethe's 'Faust,' '' in a sumptuous recording from Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic and a remarkable roster of singers, must be on the list. And even if the work falls short of counterparts by Berlioz, Liszt, Gounod and Mahler as an evocation of ''Faust,'' its seraphic beauties and contrapuntal rigor work wonderfully on their own terms.

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Robert Schumann: A Tuneful Miniaturist With a Ton of Soul
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Here are some favorite Schumann recordings of the classical-music critics of The New York Times. Availability is hard to determine in the current state of the market. Most of the recordings here can be found on Amazon.com or in major record stores. CD's range in price from $12.99 for one CD to $21.99 for a two-CD set and $40.99 for four CD's. (An introduction appears on Page 1 of Weekend.)

''HUMORESKE,'' ''FANTASIESTÜCKE,'' ''NOVELLETTEN.'' Sviatoslav Richter, pianist (Melodiya 74321 29464 2).

FANTASY IN C, ''FASCHINGS-SCHWANK AUS WIEN,'' ''PAPILLONS.'' Sviatoslav Richter, pianist (EMI Classics 5 75233 2).

PIANO SONATA NO. 1, ''KREISLERIANA.'' Murray Perahia, pianist (Sony Classical SK 62786).

PIANO CONCERTO. Leif Ove Andsnes, pianist; Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Mariss Jansons (with Grieg's Piano Concerto; EMI Classics 5 57562 2).

ROBERT SCHUMANN never quite had a grip on reality. In his later life, his condition turned tragic. But even as a moody youth, he apparently spent whole days in some fantastical realm of his own invention.

Though it's dangerous to romanticize mental illness, one can't help thinking that Schumann's unhinged imagination, counterbalanced by a probing musical intellect, led to some of the Romantic era's most original music. The instrument that best served his needs in that exploratory early period was the piano. So though I adore Schumann's lieder and chamber works, I'll leave those genres to others and stick to the piano for some recommendations.

To experience how wonderfully strange Schumann's imagination could be, listen to the ''Humoreske.'' Some find it a rambling collection of indistinctly defined sections. I find it audaciously inventive, full of startling fits and turns. The opening section, a wistful tune with a softly rippling accompaniment, jumps right into a hypercharged dance that seems at once bumptious and terrifying.

Sviatoslav Richter's colossal performance, recorded in Moscow in 1956, is a landmark in the Schumann discography. Richter produces piano effects that might seem impossible. In a section marked ''Hastig'' (''Hurried''), for example, a restless right-hand pattern that faintly outlines a melody is supported by a chordal left-hand accompaniment. Schumann also adds a middle staff to the score for an ''Innere Stimme'' (''Inner Voice''), though in a footnote he explains that this voice is not to be played but simply ''read between the lines, as it were.'' Well, somehow, Richter plays it. By highlighting notes that are merely grazed by the right- and left-hand parts, he makes a hazy and unperturbed inner melody magically emerge from the texture.

If you have trouble finding this disc (it has also been released by BMG as part of a 10-CD set of Richter performances), you can certainly find Richter's enthralling 1962 recording of three other Schumann works, drawn from concert performances in Italy and reissued in 2002. The album begins with a sweepingly grand account of the Fantasy in C; despite its title, this is Schumann's most ingeniously structured score. There is also an ebullient version of ''Faschingsschwank aus Wien'' and, best of all, a mercurial ''Papillons,'' played with infectious innocence and sudden bursts of power in the stern march sections but not a trace of sentimentality.

Murray Perahia's 1997 recording of ''Kreisleriana,'' a sprawling suite of eight movements aptly subtitled ''Fantasies for Piano,'' beautifully balances the music's impetuosity and its refinement. But the marvel of this disc is Mr. Perahia's bracing account of the formidable First Sonata; his playing untangles the webs of counterpoint in a sprawling work that can easily sound dense and convoluted.

Finally, Leif Ove Andsnes's scintillating, lucid and lyrical recording of the Piano Concerto, with Mariss Jansons and the Berlin Philharmonic, released last year, makes this repertory staple sound newly vibrant and important. It proves that Schumann could compose deftly structured compositions when he put his mind to it. Of course, his mind eventually had an agenda of its own.

January 16, 2004
Robert Schumann: A Tuneful Miniaturist With a Ton of Soul
By ALLAN KOZINN

Here are some favorite Schumann recordings of the classical-music critics of The New York Times. Availability is hard to determine in the current state of the market. Most of the recordings here can be found on Amazon.com or in major record stores. CD's range in price from $12.99 for one CD to $21.99 for a two-CD set and $40.99 for four CD's. (An introduction appears on Page 1 of Weekend.)

''CARNAVAL,'' ''FANTASIESTÜCKE'' (OP. 12), PIANO WORKS. Arthur Rubinstein, pianist (RCA Victor Red Seal 09026-63020-2).

''DICHTERLIEBE,'' ''LIEDERKREIS'' (OP. 24), SONGS. Ian Bostridge, tenor; Julius Drake, pianist (EMI Classics 5 56575 2).

PIANO CONCERTO, PIANO QUINTET. Rudolf Serkin, pianist; Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy; Budapest String Quartet (Sony Classical MYK 37256).

STRING QUARTETS NOS. 1 AND 3. St. Lawrence String Quartet (EMI Classics 5 56797 2).

SYMPHONIES (4); ''MANFRED'' OVERTURE. Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by George Szell (Sony Classical MH2K 62349; two CD's).

WHETHER or not it was syphilis that drove Schumann mad, as musicologists have long argued, he was always a bit odd. He destroyed his career as a pianist by affixing weights to his fingers in hopes of strengthening them. He created fictional antagonists (Florestan and Eusebius) who carry on arguments in both his music and his essays. And his love life was a matter of intense fixations that led more than one father to put his daughter out of Schumann's way.

It is in his piano music that Schumann's peculiarities show up most vividly, and the work that offers the best view of his overheated imagination is ''Carnaval.'' Schumann was 24 when he began the work, and his infatuation with both Clara Wieck, his teacher's 13-year-old daughter (and eventually his wife), and Ernestine von Fricken, a 17-year-old fellow student, are documented in two of the work's movements. So are the poetic Eusebius and the fiery Florestan (who are fleshed out further in the ''Fantasiestücke''). Well-drawn tributes to Chopin and Paganini are included among the 21 vignettes, and the closing ''March of the Davidsbündler Against the Philistines'' is Schumann's argument for free-spirited originality in new music.

Rubinstein's monaural recordings from the late 1940's and early 50's have greater drive and directness than the stereo versions of the same works recorded in the 60's (available in Volume 51 of RCA's Rubinstein Edition), but you can't go far wrong with either. Rubinstein caught the almost cinematic drama of these pieces as well as the sheer beauty of their surfaces.

After the solo piano works, Schumann's songs offer the most direct window into his psyche, and the best are the ''Liederkreis'' and ''Dichterliebe'' cycles, settings of Heine poetry steeped in romantic yearning, outright rejection and other evocations of unrequited love. Sumptuous readings are plentiful, but Ian Bostridge's supple phrasing and careful coloration give the bitterness in these songs an almost visceral quality. Between the cycles, Mr. Bostridge offers seven more Heine songs as an attractive bonus.

Because the Piano Concerto is one of the great war horses, it can be difficult to hear fresh. But among the charms of Rudolf Serkin's account is the deftness with which he captures the music's grandeur and prevents it from sounding bombastic. Better still is the charged reading of the Piano Quintet, a collaboration with the Budapest String Quartet, recorded at the Marlboro Festival in Vermont in 1963.

Schumann's symphonies and string quartets are an acquired taste: in both cases, structural eccentricities suggest a lack of control rather than (as Beethoven's structural eccentricities do) willful iconoclasm. Yet in the right hands, they can sound like masterpieces. By finding the right balance between explosive tension and introspective warmth, the St. Lawrence players make the First and Third Quartets seem rational, even persuasive. George Szell does similarly for the symphonies, bringing to these bigger canvases the same quality of fully controlled, precise power that animates Serkin's reading of the concerto.

January 16, 2004
Robert Schumann: A Tuneful Miniaturist With a Ton of Soul
By JEREMY EICHLER

Here are some favorite Schumann recordings of the classical-music critics of The New York Times. Availability is hard to determine in the current state of the market. Most of the recordings here can be found on Amazon.com or in major record stores. CD's range in price from $12.99 for one CD to $21.99 for a two-CD set and $40.99 for four CD's. (An introduction appears on Page 1 of Weekend.)

PIANO QUINTET, CHAMBER WORKS. Martha Argerich, pianist; Nobuko Imai, violist; Mischa Maisky, cellist; others (EMI Classics 5 57308 2).

PIANO TRIO NO. 1. Alfred Cortot, pianist; Jacques Thibaud, violinist; Pablo Casals, cellist (with Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1; Naxos 8.110185).

''DICHTERLIEBE,'' ''LIEDERKREIS'' (OP. 39). Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Alfred Brendel, pianist (Philips 416 352-2).

FANTASY IN C, ''FASCHINGS-SCHWANK AUS WIEN,'' ''PAPILLONS.'' Sviatoslav Richter, pianist (EMI Classics 5 75233 2).

PIANO CONCERTO, VIOLIN CONCERTO. Martha Argerich, pianist; Gidon Kremer, violinist; Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Teldec 4509-90696-2).

SCHUMANN was a capable symphonist, but it was the smaller-scale chamber works, solo piano music and lieder that best served his unique wedding of structure and emotion, rigor and rue. To feel his way into these creative worlds, he often relied on his first musical love, the piano, and we can thank an injury to a middle finger for the fact that he did not become a piano virtuoso himself and thus leave his greatest works unwritten. (We can also thank the primitive state of medicine at the time: Schumann's attempted therapies included bathing his finger in the entrails of a dead animal.)

At the core of his chamber output is the Piano Quintet, which epitomizes his gift for toggling between the pleasures of heart and mind. One might not expect a good recording from an ad hoc assembly of soloists but Martha Argerich and friends offer an exciting live rendition with driving rhythmic intensity, lush instrumental textures and an adrenaline-laced expressivity. More Schumann chamber music rounds out this disc, including the ''Märchenbilder,'' gracious miniatures for viola and piano, which receive a lovely reading by Ms. Argerich and Nobuko Imai.

My next pick hails from a distant sonic galaxy, far removed from the sleek modern sound and high-octane playing of Ms. Argerich and company. Indeed, the violinist Jacques Thibaud, the cellist Pablo Casals and the pianist Alfred Cortot made up a legendary ensemble from a much earlier era of music-making, and their famed performance of Schumann's D minor Piano Trio has a warm conversational quality, a dreamy legato phrasing and a mellow sweetness of tone unlike anything one finds today. The recording was made in the late 1920's, but all three musicians were born less than a quarter century after Schumann's death, and their playing maintains deep ties to the very Romantic tradition that the composer helped define. If you can listen through the inevitable surface noise, you will hear old-world Schumann at its most tender and beautiful.

Schumann's melancholic songs offer another perspective on his dark-hued genius, and in particular his keen sensitivity to the poetry and literature that so often inspired his work. Seldom is this more apparent than with the famous ''Liederkreis'' settings of the poetry of Joseph von Eichendorff. There are more vocally luxurious performances out there, but I still prefer the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the pianist Alfred Brendel for their stylish refinement and unflagging attention to musical and literary details. Their ''Dichterliebe'' is rawer and more hard-edged, but equally worthy.

When it comes to the big piano works, Sviatoslav Richter is utterly convincing in the C major Fantasy, conjuring both Classical nobility and Romantic ardor in all the right proportions, and with a breathtaking palette of colors. And Ms. Argerich tears into the A minor Piano Concerto with all the combustible virtuosity that her fans have come to expect. Both discs come with added incentives: the violinist Gidon Kremer's eloquent plea for the obscure Schumann Violin Concerto and Richter's dazzling ''Faschingsschwank aus Wien.''