Though I’d heard tales of this still young German-born, Russian-trained pianist and his many and varied accolades throughout two decades of international competitions, concerts and recordings, I’d never actually heard him until the arrival of this Schumann coupling. So let me say at once that I found his playing an exceptionally arresting experience in its graphic immediacy and freshness.

With his prodigious technique, underpinned by exuberant imaginative vitality, it was no surprise to learn that in a wide-ranging repertory, he feels particularly drawn to the later Romantic virtuoso school. Some listeners might well think his approach to Schumann’s F sharp minor Sonata (written at the age of 25) too overtly Lisztian in expression to be truly stylish. I’m sure the more classically disciplined Clara, for example, would never have allowed herself such extreme changes of tempo in contrasting Florestan’s turbulence with Eusebius’s idyllic lyricism in the two spacious outer movements. Yet with his innate musicality Glemser somehow allows the argument to cohere. His challenging rhythm in the Scherzo (and the richly savoured burlesque of its trio), like the senza passione ma espressivo of the slow movement’s intimate song, are all finely judged.

The F minor Sonata comes in Schumann’s 1853 revision, restoring the second of the two Scherzos omitted when the work was first published 17 years earlier, as a three movement Concert sans orchestre – as so recently given us by Pollini (DG, 12/01). Even if not quite rivalling that exceptional artist’s intensity and sustained drive in Schumann’s outpouring of thwarted love, Glemser’s pianism is sometimes even more ingratiating for the little extra time he allows himself for more personal details of phrasing to ‘breathe’ – not least in the central variations on a theme of Clara’s own composition as symbolic as a ring for both young lovers.

With Naxos’s tonal reproduction at its best, I can recommend the disc as a true ‘super-bargain’ not to be missed – despite the catalogue’s formidable list of rivals ranging in generation from legendary giants of the past like Horowitz and Gieseking to the outstanding young Norwegian, Leif Ove Andsnes.