Vladimir Horowitz - Schumann: Kreisleriana (2003)

Schumann's Kreisleriana is a world of delights and remains one of the composer's most popular works for the piano. Practically every major pianist has essayed a recording - or two or three - and most are very good. Recently it has come in for some very heavy intense interpretations, stressing the darker, more neurotic Schumann. Schumann: Kreisleriana/Symphonic Etudes This 1969 Horowitz performance leans more to the quixotic than the deranged, and I find the music the better for it. Horowitz was always easy money in Schumann, the composer's music rarely failing to bring out the artist in Horowitz rather than the barnstormer. This recording captures him, at least in the Kreisleriana, at the very top of his form, both as technical master and artist. I can think of no better performance to recommend as a first choice. For fans of the pianist or the composer - this is a must hear!

The Cd also includes several other selections by Schumann. Horowitz plays some better than others. The finger breaking Tocatta, so beloved by virtuosos, finds Horowitz leaning too far in the direction of pure display, though he cannot be too much blamed given the notes before him! But to be fair, many will find this great stuff, pure musical catnip. Far more satisfying for me as both playing and music are the Clara Wieck Variations. Horowitz recorded the music earlier in his career, this later version comes across as less hurried, with the resonances sounding in stereo; earlier the notes sound cut off too abruptly, an unattractive effect exaggerated by thin recorded sound. Horowitz in his second try is not only more in touch with the music's quiet, lovely charm, but eloquently qualifies the variation form, treating the various sections as part of a whole, rather than presenting them as merely an excuse for a series of strung together poetic episodes.

Schumann's Blumenstück receives a fine reading, a nice bonus to an already superb album. The Arabesque as recorded here is less successful - but Horowitz makes up for that in a good reading of the Träumerei - music so beloved by the swooning young lady pianists of the 19th century.

This remastering improves very slightly on previous incarnations, both Lp and Cd, of these selections. It has been claimed this version utilizes some differing splices - I didn't notice this, but it may be true, though such things always annoy me, especially when an artist is not around to have any say in the changes! In whatever format, Horowitz's Kreisleriana belongs in every Schumann collection.

Note: After highly recommending Martha Argerich's DG box set of solo recordings Collection 1: The Solo Piano Recordings (Box) I must confess that one piece in this generally superlative set just doesn't work for me. After repeated hearings of Arherich's universally praised recording of Kreiseleriana Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen/Kreisleriana her concept remains a mystery to me. She never convinces me she quite knows where she's going or excatly what the point to it all is. Again, not at all the popular take.