CD ECM Records Andras Schiff - Robert Schumann: Geistervariationen

2011

Andras Schiff - Fortepiano

Robert Schumann:

PAPILLONS, OP. 2
KLAVIERSONATE FIS-MOLL, OP. 11
KINDERSZENEN, OP. 15
FANTASIE C-DUR, OP. 17
WALDSZENEN, OP. 82
THEMA MIT VARIATIONEN (GEISTERVARIATIONEN) (1854)
FANTASIE C-DUR, OP. 17

Though in chronological order, Schiff´s exquisite double-disc recital takes its title from the Ghost Variations of 1854, composed to a theme dictated by angels in the hallucinatory days before Schumann threw himself into the Rhine. Schiff is too subtle a musician to allow a single thesis to dominate. Yet the fine line between dream and delusion can be felt elsewhere, not least the C major Fantasy, played here in the Budapest edition, with Schumann´s more familiar revision an appendix.
Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday

"Here is a double CD set of astounding importance; an instant classic and immediately one of this reviewer´s dics of the year. (...) It also features the finest, most thrilling and moving performances of the great Fantasie in C major that I have heard. (...) His is a supreme set; an absolute must."
Michael Tumelty, Sunday Herald

Schiff has assembled a collection that provides some new insights into Schumann’s approaches to composition and delivers those insights with a solid technique as sure to inform the curious listener as the seasoned connoisseur.
Stephen Smoliar, Examiner

András Schiff, a lifelong advocate of Schumann, has returned to manuscript sources for this recital, which begins early with “Papillons” op. 11 and spans the composer’s career through to “Geistervariationen” (“Ghost Variations”), in the middle of writing which Schumann attempted suicide. It was his last completed piano work, and is as shadowy and mysterious as the title suggests. Schiff plays the hushed opening theme as if holding his breath. In addition to the published version of the Fantasy in C, Schiff offers the unexpected, alternative ending, long hidden in a library in Budapest. So there is much to explore here, as well as Schiff’s formidably incisive, subtle and persuasive pianism to relish.
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

András Schiff is not one to follow the crowd, so even in this much-recorded repertoire you know you can expect something different. These Schumann interpretations are head and shoulders above any other recent releases of the composer’s piano works. There is astonishing clarity of line and texture, intellectual focus in every interpretive decision, and a palpable sense of immediacy all too rare in studio recordings of piano music.
Gavin Dixon, Classic CD Reviews

"A lovely two-disc set of four early Schumann works, the later nine little tone poems of Waldszenen, and his last work, the so-called `Ghost-Variations´. (...) András Schiff brings a touching intimacy to the suites of short character pieces that make up Papillons, Kinderszenen and Waldszenen, while relishing the grander gestures of the First Piano Sonata. But it is the last movement of the C major Fantasie that makes this absorbing release more so, for Shiff plays Schumann´s original ending of the third movement which returns to the same Beethoven quote that ends the first movement. You might agree with Schiff (and me) that his first thought was the more inspired. If not, he also includes the standard ending as the final item on the disc. The musicological aspect aside, this remains a distinguished release."
Jeremy Nicholas, Classic FM Magazin