All praise to Bernd Glemser for including the rarely heard Vier Klavierstucke in this pleasing Schumann miscellany. Though linked by their abstract titles of ''Scherzo'', ''Gigue'', ''Romanze'' and ''Fughetta'', likewise a predilection for dotted rhythm, the four were not conceived as a set, albeit so published in 1841. Glemser shows how Schumann made even this comparatively impersonal territory wholly his own, his only questionable liberty being the choice of a so much slower tempo for the concluding ''Fughetta'' than the printed metronome marking. But he somehow reveals a telling undercurrent of 'strangeness' akin to that found in the last of the four Nachtstucke, which are also perceptively presented here.
Liberty-taking by Glemser is certainly the exception rather than the rule. His playing is chiefly enjoyable for its unmannered simplicity, its respect for the composer's own wishes. And how eloquently the Arabeske (not least its two Clara dream-interludes) and the Andantino of the G minor Sonata repay his sensitive understatement. As for the latter's brisker movements, he captures their turbulent urgency without a moment's loss of textural clarity. It was a splendid idea to end the disc with the exuberantly imaginative and demonstrative original finale for this work—if only to prove how wise Schumann was to replace it with something more attuned to the conciseness of the other three movements. Like the C major Toccata, it could take more carefree, scintillating virtuosity than we get here, though there is never any doubt of Glemser's awareness of the music behind the teeming notes. The recording, like the playing, makes the disc a good buy at its super-bargain price.'