Schumann and Mussorgsky make a good pair here, for the vein of fantasy in both men included a darker side and an element of the grotesque. There's a coincidence, too, of similar names, behind the works, for it was Hoffmann's writings that inspired Schumann and Hartmann's pictures that prompted Mussorgsky. But maybe the comparison should end here, for the German composer's romanticism and piano writing are different from those of the Russian master, and I see that the pianist's own booklet note suggests that the works have nothing in common other than being inspired by existing ones—though he then goes on to write of their similarity lying in their contrast!
I seem to know Economou's name quite well, though he is not represented in the current catalogue. He is a Cypriot, and a composer and conductor besides being a Moscow-trained pianist. Like some others from that stable, he has a brisk way with Mussorgsky's promenading music at the start of the Pictures, though he plays it more delicately elsewhere, as before ''The Old Castle''. Here, and in other gentler numbers, he plays quite thoughtfully, but this one is taken too quickly to have the calm sadness implied by the marking Andante molto cantabile e con dolore, and the children in ''Tuileries'' are neither spontaneous nor charming. And why on earth does he rush straight into ''Bydlo'', of which the first chord here (loud, where the score says piano) comes just one beat after the final one of ''Tuileries'', so omitting the composer's rests and 'full stop' bar lines, and then in addition play it so fast (2'29'' as against the 2'55'' Brendel takes for it—Philips)?
There are other over-rapid tempos (e.g. the ''Market Place at Limoges'' is marked Allegretto but becomes a toccata), and I fear that Economou is sometimes too peremptory, and tonally not least, though I think the DG engineers have tamed his sound in forte and the recording is pleasing if still with a touch of metallic shallowness. There is much deft pianism here, as in the ''Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks'' and ''Baba-Yaga'', but although this is a performance of personality and worth hearing as such, it can hardly satisfy in the long term. This is especially a pity since the final ''Great Gate of Kiev'' has a breadth and poise, and indeed a powerful Russianness, that would have served well elsewhere.
I have spent much space on the Mussorgsky and must therefore be briefer with the Schumann. Economou rightly brings plenty of fantasy to the Kreisleriana, and I liked it better than the other work, not least because there is more light and shade in the playing, both tonally and in terms of texture and rubato. There is the right lyrical tenderness, too, in the fourth and sixth pieces, and the pianist is equal technically to Schumann's demands. But the slower music of the second piece shows up his tendency to play the left hand before the right, and the seventh is a bit of a rush and heavily pedalled in places, while the ten-second gap before the last (No. 8) seems too long.'