Schumann: Piano Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Robert Schumann
Label: Classics
Magazine Review Date: 10/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: PCD899
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Papillons |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Cristina Ortiz, Piano Robert Schumann, Composer |
| Kinderszenen |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Cristina Ortiz, Piano Robert Schumann, Composer |
| Carnaval |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Cristina Ortiz, Piano Robert Schumann, Composer |
Author: Joan Chissell
This is light-fingered, nimble Schumann playing graced by feminine charm and fancy even If not always penetrating to the music's innermost, Germanic heart. I enjoyed her most on the dancefloor in Carnaval, particularly when teasing and flirting and cajoling in commedia dell' arte disguise. Oddly, she chooses to play the ''Sphinxes'', those three mysterious SCHA-ASCH variants which most people feel should be seen but not heard. Of the Davidsbund themselves, I thought her dreamy Eusebius more persuasively characterized than her not quite bold enough Florestan, likewise her positive Estrella more than her insufficiency impassioned Chiarina. Collectively, however, they are an exuberant young bunch even if not as powerful final marchers against the Philistines as we sometimes meet. As for the early Papillons (twice recalled by Schumann in the course of Carnaval), here again Ortiz is delectably fleet, capturing all the music's youthful freshness and whimsy. Just once or twice I wondered if her rubato was drawing too much attention to itself. I would certainly have preferred a firmer rhythmic back-bone in the polonaise-inspired Nos. 5 and 11, as well as stronger, more clear-cut (i.e. less pedalled) handling of the striding octaves of No. 3 and the robust choral challenges of Nos. 8 and 10 and the start of the finale.
In Kinderszenen I admired Ortiz's total rejection of sentimentality. Yet I missed a certain essentially Schumannesque sense of wonder in several of the composer's more intimate dreams, while also feeling that some of the bolder pieces were a little undercharacterized (both ''Important Event'' and ''Ride a Cock-horse'' might even have benefited from clearer-cut, less pedalled texture). I also questioned her haste in ''Perfect Happiness'', her restricted tempo contrast for the alternating moods of ''Bogeyman's coming'' and some slightly capricious timing and phrasing in ''Almost too serious'' and ''Child falling asleep''. But despite these reservations, there still remains much that is young and fresh about the Schumann encountered here. The recording, bright rather than deep, is acceptable enough.
'
In Kinderszenen I admired Ortiz's total rejection of sentimentality. Yet I missed a certain essentially Schumannesque sense of wonder in several of the composer's more intimate dreams, while also feeling that some of the bolder pieces were a little undercharacterized (both ''Important Event'' and ''Ride a Cock-horse'' might even have benefited from clearer-cut, less pedalled texture). I also questioned her haste in ''Perfect Happiness'', her restricted tempo contrast for the alternating moods of ''Bogeyman's coming'' and some slightly capricious timing and phrasing in ''Almost too serious'' and ''Child falling asleep''. But despite these reservations, there still remains much that is young and fresh about the Schumann encountered here. The recording, bright rather than deep, is acceptable enough.
'
Schumann: Piano Works
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