Déconcertant

PRODUKTBESCHREIBUNGEN
With this second album devoted to the music of Robert Schumann, I wanted to celebrate this emblematic figure of the nineteenth century who has accompanied me in my life as an artist for over twenty years now, from his Album für die Jugend to his Piano Concerto. The Concerto was the culmination of my studies in Athens, and the Concert without orchestra of my time at the Paris Conservatoire. It had long been a dream of mine to bring these two works together on a single disc. Tradition has it that concertos for piano and orchestra require particularly brilliant playing from the soloist, which is supposed to highlight the pianist's qualities. Schumann himself admitted, however, that the condition of his right hand did not permit such virtuoso writing. The Concert without Orchestra (the subtitle chosen by Schumann's publishers) had already featured this eminently virtuosic writing almost ten years earlier, the expression of a youth full of bravura and brimming with emotion. The Concerto, with its chamber-like writing, is set against a Concert without orchestra, which is nonetheless a true solo concerto: on one side, the piano plays with the orchestra, seeking its place in it, while on the other, it shines with its virtuosity, its symphonic force, even its madness. Here Schumann takes us in the opposite direction: the first work places the piano in the orchestra, the second, the orchestra in the piano. In this opposition of very distinct styles, we can find traces of Schumann's alter-egos: Florestan and his exalted passion, Eusebius and his introspection. It is this duality, which permeates all Schumann's work, that really strikes me. (Fiona Mato)

Number of Discs: 1

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