Though in the UK still best­known and acclaimed for earlier classical repertory‚ elsewhere – not forgetting the Salzburg Festival – Schiff is already saluted as a champion of Schumann. Here we’re offered a bravely designed‚ crystal­clear recording of a 1999 Zurich recital‚ complete with applause. It is brave because not just an assemblage of audience­wooin favour­ites‚ but compiled of works much less frequently encountered together onthe recital platform. Schiff’s playing throughout has a refreshingly light­fingered‚ spring­like textural transparency and musical grace all his own. But I sometimes wondered if his spontaneous streaks of fancy‚ so engaging heard just once‚ might draw too much attention to themselves on frequent repetition‚ making you suspect a conscious ‘interpreter’ at work. Certainly his richly expressive‚ beautifully phrased opening of the Humoreske just fails to convey Schumann’s requested Einfach (simple). The work’s often enigmatically unpredictable‚ swift­changing moods are vividly contrasted throughout‚ though without that deeper inner unity that for me has always made Lupu’s recording so unforgettably revealing and moving. Even with a judiciously placed half­way interval‚ it was certainly courageous to offer the eight Novelletten as a complete set. Schumann once described them as longish tales of adventure‚ all in some way connected with his beloved Clara. But with their constant short­sectional repeats these pieces can still tax the listener’s attention even more than the player’s fingers. Schiff’s keen imaginative response certainly lessens this danger. And he is at his most eloquent in the longest and most personal No 8 with its heart­searing recall of that falling phrase from an early ‘Notturno’ of Clara’s own composition (published as part of her Soirées musicales) which for both of them became as symbolic as a ring. The same theme‚ openly acknowledged‚ not only generates the variation movement of the F minor sonata‚ but much else in this unjustly neglected work too. With Pollini’s recent 60th birthday DG recording (of its first‚ Scherzo­less publication under the title Concert sans orchestre‚ 12/01) still ringing in our ears‚ Schiff’s lighter fluency and general sound­world (not least in the dancing staccato of the finale) lacks the sustained demonic intensity and drive of the older master. Yet it still remains an eloquent reminder that enforced separation from the ‘distant beloved’ was at a painful peak. After such an outpouring of notes‚ I can only describe Schiff’s choice of the laconically simple final number of the Nachtstücke by way of farewell as inspired.