Schumann - Complete Piano Works [14 CD Boxset] [Box set]

I used to have the very good Georg Demus Schumann piano works box setComplete Piano Works (13CD), which remains worth hearing, but recently replaced that with this recently issued Brilliant Classics box. Instead of hearing one pianists view of these works (the great and the good of them), I have found that the varied performers offered by this box has proven more rewarding. Many of these recordings are recent, the oldest dating back to the 1970s, and all of the performers are world-class pianists.

CD1 contains Kreisleriana Op.16 and the Fantasie in C Op.17, played by a Robert Schumann specialist, the Hungarian Klara Wurtz. This CD was recorded in 2001 and Wurtz is, perhaps, one of the leading interpreters of these pieces of her generation.

CD2 contains Piano Sonata #1 Op.11 and Piano Sonata #2 Op.22. Klara Wurz here, too. 2001 recording.

CD3 contains the Piano Concerto Op.54 and Faschingsschwank Aus Wein Op.26. Here Klara Wurtz is backed by an excellent orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie under Arie van Beek. 2001 & 2002 recordings.

CD4 is Klara Wurtz playing Fantasiestucke Op.12, Waldszenen Op.82, Arabeske Op.18, and Kinderszenen Op.15. 1999 & 2007 recordings.

CD5 is the first of the discs Brilliant Classics has licenced from another label, in this case the now-defunct Olympia, and features the talented Ronald Brautigam in the Allegro Op.8, Noveletten Op.21, Fantasiestucke Op.111, and Gesange Der Fruhe Op.133.Schumann - Piano Works was the original release from 1993.

CD6 was a Chandos release, featuring Luba Edlina, from 1998 Schumann: Album für die Jugend, and contains Album fur die Jugend, Op.68.

CD7 has the terrific Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy with a 2008 recording of Carnaval Op.9, Nachtstucke Op.23, Toccata, Op.7, Vier Klavierstucke Op.32 and the "Presto Passionato", which was the original finale of Sonata #2. This is a DSD recording.

CD8 has Schmitt-Leonardy again with his 2006 recordings of the Abegg Variations Op.1, Intermezzi Op.4, and the Symphonische Etuden, Op.13. DSD recording here, too.

CD9 has Mariana Izman playing the fabulous Davidsbundlertanze Op.6, Papillons Op.2, and the "Concert Sans Orchestre" (first version of the Piano Sonata #3). 2008 recording.

CD10 takes us back to 1974 with the highly-regarded Peter Frankl from Vox playing the Impromptus on a theme of Clara Wieck Op.5, Humoreske Op.20, Neues Album fur Die Jugend, and Paganini Etudes, Op.3 (how often have you heard that?).

CD11 is Frankl with the Sonata #1 Op.118A, Sonata #2 Op.118B, Sonata #3 Op.118C, Bunte Blatter Op.99, Albumblatter, and Blumenstuck Op.19.

CD12 is Frankl in Six Concert Studies on Paganini Caprices Op.10, Four Marches Op.76, Seven Pieces in the Form of Fughettas Op.126, Scherzo in F Minor WoO5/1, and the Variations on a theme of Beethoven WoO31.

CD13 is the last Frankl disc and has Four Fuges Op.72, Albumblatter Op.124, Three Romanzen Op.28, and even the Theme and Variations in E Flat WoO21, finishing up with the Canon "An Alexis" Op.Posth.

Brilliant Classics has provided a CD-Rom with the very good booklet notes, too!

As far as I know, this box does contain all of the solo piano music Robert Schumann composed, plus the piano concerto. All of the performances are between very good and excellent, and the box is a very fitting tribute to Robert Schumann in his anniversary year.

As Joan Chissell put it in her 1948 book "Schumann" Schumann (Master Musician) (well-worth finding) "... he spent the first ten years of his life as a composer writing almost exclusively for the piano, and it is among the prodigious output of those ten years that nearly all his most popular and indeed greatest works can be found".

They are all here in wonderful performances; highly recommended!

This is a great box set. It, contains all of schumanns solo piano works including the piano concerto in a minor. Klara wurtz is a wonderfull pianst with great feeling and emotion. She plays schumanns piano concerto wonderfully. The sound and recording is great. So, if you want all of schumanns complete piano works just buy this set.