The outstanding feature of this CD is Misha Donat’s booklet essay‚ which is a model presentation of the literary‚ biographical and musical issues pertinent to these two masterworks. Not that there is anything half­hearted about Mark Swartzentruber’s playing – he shows rhythmic vitality and expressive warmth at every turn‚ and there is no doubting his pianistic command. Nor is the recording seriously to be faulted – it is a little hard on the ear‚ but not unbearably so. The problem is that Swartzentruber lacks the sense of fantasy and inwardness that distinguish the great Schumann interpreters. For those indispensable qualities he substitutes determination to impress; it is as if he is nailing phrases down rather than enabling them to take wing. This‚ then‚ is a hard­working Kreisleriana‚ whereas Lupu catches the ‘wild‚ unbridled love’ Schumann invited Clara to find in the piece (albeit in one of Decca’s harsher piano recordings) and Pollini’s brand­new account for DG (reviewed last month) is well ahead in terms of textural finesse. And none of these is a match for Perahia’s multi­faceted interpretation. In the Symphonic Studies Swartzentruber’s theme is heavily laden with expression‚ and succeeding movements have a powerful rhetorical presence. But the insubstantial‚ windblown quality of Etude No 3 eludes him‚ and the following Variation is also too substantial. The final triumphal march is a make­or­break piece; sadly‚ Swartzentruber has been so march­like beforehand that all he can do is to reinforce the same relentlessness‚ to the point where you find yourself sharing Schumann’s own doubts over the repetitiveness of the structure. At the other extreme‚ the poetry of the posthumous variations demands a more floated sound­quality. A single bar of Richter is enough to take you straight into Schumann’s world – this despite a fluttery recording and a curious conflation of the structure that omits three of the movements and intersperses the remainder with the posthumous studies. For a modern version‚ better recorded and displaying comparable command to Swartzentruber’s‚ but with untrammelled fantasy and virtuosity‚ Marc­André Hamelin is a safe bet.