''A leading exponent of a new romanticism said to be permeating the performing arts in the late 1980s'' is how Tzimon Barto is described in the booklet. But would ''old romanticism'' be nearer the truth? For like one or two others of his generation I could name, this Juilliard-trained pianist evokes memories of what allegedly went on around the turn of the century when the projection of 'self' in performance was of paramount importance, regardless of the composer. Here, Barto seems determined to remind us that Eschenbach once assessed his virtuosity as ''the most profound I have ever heard in my life''. The trouble in Kreisleriana is Barto's excessive reliance on slow tempo for this profundity. No. 2, for instance, lasts10'54'' from him as against Horowitz's 6'53''. So often throughout the work (except, of course, in the inescapably livelier Nos. 1 and 7) the music's natural flow is impeded, and its endearingly droll accentuation made to sound manipulated and mannered. At times this pianist's style is even etiolated enough to evoke a world-weary octogenarian Schumann rather than a wildly-in-love young romantic of 28. By its very nature the Etudes symphoniques permits a greater show of brilliance which Barto, when so minded, can so readily supply. But even in this work he plays down masculine strength and bravura in favour of a more subjective approach, several times marked by yieldings and wiltings of tempo and dynamics unrequested in the score. His greatest liberty is nevertheless the insertion, one by one at various points en route, of the five exquisitely poetic, ruminative variations that Schumann himself, after long thought, decided to reject as incompatible with his more objectively virtuosic, definitive conception of the work. Unpardonably, Barto even inserts the fifth (wholly bereft of its idyllic, benedictory calm) as a quasi trio in the course of the fiery Tenth Etude. As for the finale, he predictably uses the rejected first version rather than Schumann's carefully considered, tautened 1852 revision. To be fair, there is much in Barto's agility and sensitivity to suggest that he could one day grow into a Schumann player of distinction. But not until he learns to put the composer's wishes first. Like the playing, the recording eschews the cold, clear light of day in favour of something less sharp-cut, more soft-grained.
It was a bracing experience, at first, to turn from Barto to Wilhelm Ohmen, a 43 - year - old German prepared to accept the Etudes symphoniques at what might be termed face-value. His is a technically fluent, clearly chiselled reading with the five supplementary variations not scattered around at will but inserted as a group between the Eighth and Ninth Etudes. Further hearings nevertheless left me with a sneaking suspicion that Ohmen was taking the word 'etude' in the title a little too literally. He is not helped by his shallow recording. Even so, his own characterization still needs to warm and ripen. He could certainly allow himself a little more romantic indulgence in contexts like the heart-easing ending of the fifth supplementary variation—and still more, the Arabeske, which along with the Toccata (again no doubts about this player's technical agility) brings the disc to a none too generous playing-time of 50 minutes.
Nikolai Posnjakow, a 51-year-old Russian from Leningrad now living and teaching in West Germany, offers a much more temperamental Schumann, with very sharp contrast between the fiery Florestan and the brooding Eusebius. In the heat of excitement his playing loses a measure of refinement, just as some of his dreaming is almost too withdrawn. At times he uses more right pedal than is wise in so plummily reverberant a venue: the recording is very close and full. But always his heart is in the right place. He is commendably in control of the stronger, stricter variations in Beethoven's Op. 35, but indulges in some questionable flexibility of pulse elsewhere in pursuit of expression.
Space precludes detailed comparison with the five rival versions of Kreisleriana and the Etudes symphoniques listed above. But in a nutshell I would advise all collectors to stay with justly-praised old friends for the time being.'