Florian Uhlig - Schumann: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 11 – Schumann & E.T.A. Hoffmann (2018) [Hi-Res]

The eleventh volume Schumann's complete piano works, played by Florian Uhlig, these are inspired pieces, more or less influenced by E. T. A. Hoffmann, as both a historical figure (a writer of course, a musician too, although he never really shone, jurist, and talented draughtsman in his spare time…) and as a legend – Offenbach dedicated his final masterpiece to him! Of course, the keystone of this album is without a doubt the fantastic cycle Kreisleriana, whose title refers to a collection by Hoffmann, or rather, signed with the name Johannes Kreisler, which was the writer's alter ego. From them, Schumann distils eight pieces, alternating between fury (Kreisler had a very, very stormy and mercurial temperament) and hyper-romantic lyricism, often with a great pianistic complexity – which does not, all the same, hide the purely musical discourse. The other works presented here by Uhlig are probably less directly connected with Hoffmann, although the composer takes some titles from him here and there. The programme is made up of works dating from 1837 to 1839 – years in which Schumann and Clara Wieck were keeping up a long-distance relationship, before they would marry in 1840, for better and, alas, for worse after a few years. Schumann, with an alter ego of his own, gives us here the some of the most effusive works: it's an art that is full of marvellous contrast and contradictions. Uhlig plays it brilliantly.