Robert Schumann - Piano Sonatas Nos.1 and 3

Robert Schumann: 

Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 & 3

Bernd Glemser

SUPERLATIVE SCHUMANN

In the wrong hands, Schumann's monumental first and third piano sonatas can become gargantuan bores, pressing the limits with their youthful manipulations, fragmentation and repetitive ideas. Could be why these works are so infrequently recorded. Of the few pianists who did are Arrau, Kuerti, and Horowitz, to name the brave pre-digital-era group, and more recently, Andsnes and Lee. None, though, tackled the two together.

Rare Schumann and brilliant performance

For a lover of Schumann, this cd is essential, not only because it contains two sonatas (Nos. 1 and 3) and recorded rarely or, anyway, separately; but also because the interpretation of German pianist Bernd Glemser is excellent - has great clarity, and, despite its richness and nuances of expression, does not fall in excessive and misleading romanticism.

Bernd Glemser seems the intrepid first, and what a marvelously endowed contribution he has made to the literature. His performances of these lengthy Schumann works are so filled with new ideas, so sensitive to innermost detail and voicing, so overtly rich with the fantastical permutations imbued in every bar, so idiomatic and so obviously loving of the music itself that these sonatas spring to life with an energetic devotion second to none.

Without glorifying his own immense talent, Glemser reveals Schumann's in all its tormented impetuosity, virtuosity and bitter yearning. With great eloquence, phenomenal insight, and an undeniable reverence, the pianist pays true homage to the composer. In so doing, he invokes the spirit of Schumann as well as raising these sonatas to their rightful place. The remarkable recording, too, complements Glemser's vision in every possible way