recensions:

Interview with Dr. Michael Struck, Schumann-Preisträger 2010 - www.kn-online.de
Irmgard Knechtges-Obrecht about Redescovering Robert Schumann, www.schumann-portal.de
CD-Tip of 1th feb 2007, Michael Schmidt in BR4
"record of the year", recommended by G.R. Koch in the FAZ, 02th dec 2006
Gerhard R. Koch in the FAZ, 25th nov 2006
Carsten Dürer in PianoNEWS, issue sept/oct 2006
Note 1, issue 05/06

booklet text:

For decades the musical world has dragged around an image of the composer Robert Schumann that was distorted by clichés. Such clichés include the image of a dreamer remote from reality - which seemed to be only too well confirmed by Schumann's most popular piano piece, Träumerei (Reverie) and Eduard Bendemann's famous posthumes charcoal drawing of Schumann's dreamy head supported by his hand.

Another cliché is the idea of Schumann as primarily a master of "small forms". The composer's contemporaries rightly saw this in a more differentiated way. They sensed that Schumann the symphonist also had substantial things to say. And whoever had any business doings with him - such as the correspondents of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik co-founded and directed for years by Schumann, or his publishers - quickly recignized that Schumann knew the ropes of real (business) life remarkably well. Robert Schumann, the prototype of the "romantic" composers, should therefore be newly discovered or rediscovered in some respects. This also applies to certain areas of his production - the works of his final years of creativity, for example. These were long thought to be so heavily burdened by his tragic mental illness that their novelty, independence and artistic courage were hardly perceived. But there are also new aspects to be discovered in respect to the artistic interpretation and performance history of his music.

Along these lines, the present CD seeks to expose unknown or long neglected aspects of the ingenious piano composer Schumann. In so doing, the titles of the works brought together here - "Scenes", "Arabesque", "Songs", Ballads" and "Fantasy Pieces" (alluding to E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Fantasy Pieces in the Manner of Callot") - show the breadth and expressive power of the romantic character piece in its relationship to its sister arts of poetry and painting.

Another red thread of this CD is the contrasting of the "early" with the "late" Schumann - unfortunately still rather congruent with the contrast between the "popular" and the "unknown" Schumann. Thus the Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15 and the Arabesque, Op. 18 composed in the late 1830s are among Schumann's most popular piano works of all, while the Songs of Daybreak of October 1853 led a shadow existence for a long time. This has only changed in recent times, when artists and musicologists began to question old clichés in thinking about and appraising Schumann's works and to occupy themselves with the late works more intensively.
Dr. Michael Struck
Translation: David Babcock

This CD is published by ars musici and available in selected stores or directly at Angelika Nebel. Upon request CD´s can be autographed (Price: 18,99 €).

Stiftung van Meeteren Düsseldorf	Kunststiftung NRW	F.W. Hempel & Co