Andras Schiff: In Concert

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Robert Schumann's dense yet soaring keyboard textures, obsessive rhythmic repetitions, and restless polyphonic mind inspire András Schiff's poetic virtuosity to rarefied heights of music making in the Humoreske, the eight Novelletten, and the Sonata No. 3 (better known as the Concerto Without Orchestra). In the Sonata's outer movements, Schiff unleashes power with canny expressive economy, while the variations in the Andantino lusciously unfold. The Humoreske is riper and more complexly detailed here than in Schiff's relatively straightlaced 1976 Denon recording. Throughout the Novelletten, Schiff adapts a less massive, more clipped style compared with, say, Sviatoslav Richter's more objective readings of Nos. 1, 2, and 8. Yet Schiff's wide arsenal of articulations and hand balances helps keep Schumann's bottomless lyrical fount afloat over the bar lines. Schiff's stamina and concentration are all the more amazing when you consider that these three big pieces stem from a single concert held at the Tonhalle Zürich on May 30, 1999. The fourth piece, from Schumann's Op. 23 Nachstücke, makes for a touching encore. In sum, a very special release, and gorgeously recorded, too. --Jed Distler

Tracks:

Humoreske op. 20
Novelletten op. 21: Markiert und kraftig
Novelletten op. 21: Ausserst rasch und mit Bravour
Novelletten op. 21: Leicht und mit Humor
Novelletten op. 21: Ballmassig. Sehr munter

Tracks:

Novelletten op. 21: Rauschend und festlich
Novelletten op. 21: Sehr lebhaft mit vielem Humor
Novelletten op. 21: Ausserst rasch
Novelletten op. 21: Sehr lebhaft
Laviersonate f-Moll op. 14: Allegro brillante
Laviersonate f-Moll op. 14: Scherzo. Molto comodo
Laviersonate f-Moll op. 14: Quasi variazioni. Andantino de Clara Wieck
Nachstucke op. 23: Ad libitum-Einfach

Amazon.com

Robert Schumann's dense yet soaring keyboard textures, obsessive rhythmic repetitions, and restless polyphonic mind inspire András Schiff's poetic virtuosity to rarefied heights of music making in the Humoreske, the eight Novelletten, and the Sonata No. 3 (better known as the Concerto Without Orchestra). In the Sonata's outer movements, Schiff unleashes power with canny expressive economy, while the variations in the Andantino lusciously unfold. The Humoreske is riper and more complexly detailed here than in Schiff's relatively straightlaced 1976 Denon recording. Throughout the Novelletten, Schiff adapts a less massive, more clipped style compared with, say, Sviatoslav Richter's more objective readings of Nos. 1, 2, and 8. Yet Schiff's wide arsenal of articulations and hand balances helps keep Schumann's bottomless lyrical fount afloat over the bar lines. Schiff's stamina and concentration are all the more amazing when you consider that these three big pieces stem from a single concert held at the Tonhalle Zürich on May 30, 1999. The fourth piece, from Schumann's Op. 23 Nachstücke, makes for a touching encore. In sum, a very special release, and gorgeously recorded, too. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews:

terrific recital.......2003-03-22

... If anything, for me, this album helped me to begin to actually enjoy Schumann, a composer I've never really liked. After hearing "Kreisleriana" so many times, all it ever sounded like to me was a bottomless pit of highly virtuosic nothingness.

What exactly is the "Humoreske"? Before, I thought it was a completely incoherent notebook of scattered and unfocused ideas, and it is; it has no form. Some ideas are beautiful, but some repeat, others don't, and it seems to have no real beginning, middle, or end. Yet it was Schiff's interpretation here that finally allowed me to hear it as a whole. Schiff's tone is instantly recognizeable; there's something about the way he touches the instrument that is very personal, and it works for me. Just the way he opens the "Humoreske" is notable for how he winds the tempo up, scattering the notes in the first few bars until they set the piece rolling. His dynamics are top-notch, his tone sings, his rhythm is strong when need be.

This is also one of the best-recorded live piano recitals I can recall hearing; you'd think it was a top-shelf studio recording until the applause breaks through. ECM engineers added a little echo here and there, but with a nice effect.

Andras Schiff never ceases to amaze me with his sound and his taste, and this CD is another in a growing stack that has opened the curtain for me on pieces I had otherwise overlooked.

Atomized Schumann.......2003-03-08

Andras Schiff is a gifted pianist. His Bach glows from within. His recordings are well-engineered and the sound is excellent. But every time I hear him play Schumann, the music sounds disjointed and fragmented. Particularly with Schumann's later works, this can be severely distracting. It's almost as though Mr. Schiff had been reading Jacques Derrida beforehand and is out to deconstruct the music rather than perform it. Mr. Schiff's interpretations sound almost like caricatures of Schumann, as Glenn Gould's performances notoriously caricatured Mozart's piano sonatas, which Gould disliked. Schumann should not be rendered impenetrable. In this recording, as in Mr. Schiff's recording of Schumann's gorgeous "Kreisleriana" (which I found off-putting at worst and at best uninteresting), Mr. Schiff seems to treat Schumann almost as an object of ridicule and contempt.

No matter who the pianist, it seems reviewers insist that this one or that one is THE great interpreter of Schumann: Schiff, Argerich, Lupu, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Cortot, and so on. The interpretations are diverse: they range from romantic and sinuous to atomized and nearly incoherent. Perhaps the reason for the approbation of the critics is that, as Roland Barthes suggests in his wise essay, "Loving Schumann," Schumann's music is as if "written only for one person, the one who plays it; the true Schumann pianist...." Or perhaps it is because the profound intimacy of the music is so compelling that everyone who listens can find an interpretation that speaks especially to him or her. Barthes suggests Schumann's realities are always threatened by disarticulation and dissociation. I agree. But that applies to the compositions themselves. Thus, it is not for the pianist to aggravate the situation by disarticulating and dissociating the performance as well. Schumann has done the fragmenting within the music, but he has the right to do so. Mr. Schiff could play Schumann well, and perhaps brilliantly, but for whatever reason, he atomizes the music and leaves at least this listener confused and alienated, destroying the intimacy with which Schumann has imbued his music.

I appreciate that Mr. Schiff chose to include all eight of the Noveletten on the same bill. They deserve to be heard more. Nevertheless, I would like to hear Arkady Volodos, Mitsuko Uchida, Maurizio Pollini or Vladimir Ashkenazy give this program by way of comparison.

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