Schumann : Piano works

Schumann is a mainstay of many pianists' repertoire, but the most memorable interpreters find a personal connection between his temperament and theirs. One thinks of Horowitz and Richter especially, two restless imaginations capable of near violence at the keyboard, mercurial flights of fancy, and enormous will power. They were pianists who seemed larger than the piano, one might say. Anderszewski has much the same musical temperament, as he showed early on, not with Schumann but with the Diabelli Variations -- he turned in a daringly personal reading that confronted the work's thorny eccentricity and mysterious emotional twists and turns. Schumann's idiom takes off from that side of Beethoven, releasing the piano into a range of emotional freedom unheard of before and probably since.

One sign of Anderszewski's penetration into Schumann's shadowy recesses is his choice of works here. He has skipped over the composer's popular favorites (Fantasy in C, Carnaval, Kinderszenen), the masterpieces loved by aficionados (Davidsbundlertanze, Kreisleriana), and even Richter's fairly obscure favorites (Bunte Blatter, Noveletten), as if these aren't peculiar enough to suit him. Because of his fitful mental illness but more because of his own divided temperament, Schumann opens some avenues of piano writing that feel unhinged or so private that no one outside the composer can relate to them. But, then, the same might be said of the Diabelli Var., of course, which may be why Anderszewski chose them to start his Beethoven career. There seems to be a pattern.

This is all a prelude to saying that this new CD is a tough listen. Even the most familiar work, Humoreske, is played with aching sensitivity, often slowly. All three works exhibit the difficult side of Schuman, expressing what is most contradictory, wayward, and inexplicable. Because of Anderszewski's obvious power and command, which is fully up to Richter's standards, critics have bowed down with praise -- how could you not? But even for an experienced listener, one work at a sitting is enough. If you want to follow a superbly imaginative pianist as he tries to unravel one of the most tortured seminal minds of musical Romanticism, here is an ideal opportunity, but for simple pleasures, this isn't a good choice.

On large professional studio monitors, this recording sounds quite distant, as if the auditor -i.e. the miking- was on the first balcony. A grand piano is a 450 kg instrument roughly 3m long. Here it feels barely powerful enough to interrupt a conversation... Not to mention that the instrument fortissimo interaction with the room does not bring the best of sounds.
This is poor recording technique, quite prevalent these days in classical music. No bass, no presence, just a disembodied representation. Hardly the way to bring new fans to classical music. Oh but I forgot, as long as critics play the game and shower these creations with "recording of the month" awards, the musical chair game can continue.
And I am not even talking about the musical aspect of it... And Anderszewski is a pianist that I find interesting. At least this is not vulgar like Lang Lang but this time, the exercise seems quite empty, quite unmoving, a beautiful building visited but no one lives in it. In Humoreske, it feels as if he is interested in carving a sound above all, not story telling. There is so much more that can be done with this superb music. A disappointment in so many levels...