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Schumann-Portal

Within five months of the release of his live album Live & Encores, which was also released on the Divine Art label, Burkard Schliessmann presents Robert Schumann: Fantasies, an extensive recording of Schumann’s Phantasmagoria for piano. On three SACDs there are recordings of the Fantasy Pieces op. 12, the Kreisleriana op. 16, the Fantasy in C major op. 17, the Arabesque op. 18, the Night Pieces op. 23 as well as the Three Fantasy Pieces op. 111 and the Songs the early op. 133.

It is not only the proximity of the releases of the two albums that gives them the character of a double pack, but also the fact that both albums contain Schumann’s Fantasy in C major and the third number of the Fantasy Pieces op. 12, “Why?” include. Live & Encores and Fantasies very impressively show Burkard Schliessmann’s playing in completely different situations: Live & Encores was recorded live in front of an audience in the Fazioli concert hall in Milan on three consecutive evenings in April 2023, so that only three takes were required for the final editing for each piece templates. Here Schliessmann plays a Fazioli F278. Fantasies, on the other hand, was recorded in Berlin’s teldex studios from the end of August to the beginning of September 2023. Here Schliessmann plays a D-274 from Steinway & Sons and uses two different tuners. While Live & Encores conveys the “immediate and spontaneous impression” (according to Burkard Schliessmann in an email to the author) of the music in the live situation, the feeling of the artist communicating with the audience and the mutual exchange of tension can be experienced the situation in the studio is different. Under the right conditions, “the matter can be brought to the heart of the matter” (Schliessmann). In addition to the acoustic conditions of the studio, this also includes the instrument, the technical equipment and the collaboration with the producer.

In the present case, all conditions come together optimally. Burkard Schliessmann’s interpretive flair, his intellectual penetration of Schumann’s musical text and his perfect technique come into their own in the acoustic conditions of the studio and in the hands of his producer Julian Schwenkner. The total of fourteen microphones that capture Schliessmann’s playing on the excellent Steinway & Sons in Dolby Atmos ensure a Schumann recording that is nothing more and nothing less than a milestone.

Robert Schumann’s poetic phantasmagoria place the highest intellectual, interpretative and technical demands on the pianist. It is always worth remembering the connections between poetry, fantasy and reality in Schumann’s world of thought. Reading Schliessmann’s essay “Robert Schumann’s Phantasmagoria”, which forms the core of the album’s detailed liner notes, is highly recommended. It says that in literature, authors such as Gérard de Nerval, Hölderlin and Charles Lamb tried to “place a new form of understanding in the place of logical thinking, rationalism”. Schumann is the “representative of this school in music” and the attentive listener will feel “this illogical, irrational, almost crazy aspect” of Schumann’s music.

But this is only one side of Schumann’s piano music. The other is structural, architectural. Elsewhere in the liner notes, Burkard Schliessmann highlights the importance for Schumann of the polyphonic music of older masters, in which Schumann recognized a romantic principle, namely the expression of the “mysterious relationships between souls and things” in the interweaving of voices in contrapuntal music. Burkard Schliessmann succeeds in making both audible and tangible – the poetic, mysterious and fantastic aspects as well as the formal, structural aspects – in an exemplary manner in this recording.

It begins with the Kreisleriana, eight movements that Schumann wrote within a few days in 1838, in a state of inner turmoil and depressive moods. The pieces were inspired by E. T. A. Hoffmann’s bizarre Kapellmeister character Johannes Kreisler, who ends up in madness. Already in the first movement “Extremely moved”, a true “Florestan”, the inner turbulence becomes noticeable and here one of the great strengths of Schliessmann’s interpretation becomes apparent, namely the choice of tempo. In faster movements, Schliessmann tends to use comparatively slightly slower tempos, without the pieces losing any of their tension. On the contrary: through sound coloring and phrasing, Burkard Schliessmann really brings out the urgent Florestan character of the first movement. The same can be seen in other pieces on the album, for example “Aufschwung” and “In der Nacht” from the Fantasy Piecesop. 12. With Schumann, virtuosity never becomes an end in itself and Schliessmann faithfully follows this maxim (in contrast to other of his colleagues). Rather, virtuosity (in the sense of technical perfection) in Schliessmann’s interpretation of Schumann is always in the service of poetry – and with such lightness and transparency that the sometimes enormous technical difficulties of Schumann’s piano movements, especially in the Kreisleriana, are not seen as such noticed.

The lyrical Eusebius sentences also have a poetic depth that is rarely heard. Schliessmann’s performance of the long second movement of the Kreisleriana impresses with perfectly controlled legato playing, which always emphasizes the complexity of polyphony vocally and plastically. The urgent passages appear soft and mysterious, everything develops organically, everything is in flow.

The studio recording of Fantasy in C major available on Fantasies invites comparison with the live recording on Live & Encores. It is particularly noticeable in the third movement that Schliessmann deliberately chose a slower tempo in the studio recording. While on Live & Encores the movement has a playing time of 8:18, on Fantasies he plays it in 9:03. Here it becomes clear how different situations – live and studio – affect the interpretation. Here a greater flow, there a more spherical state. However, both are absolutely coherent and it is worthwhile to look at Schumann’s Fantasy in C major from both aspects.

The following Arabesque op. 18 is recorded twice on Fantasies. It comes across as slightly dance-like at the end of the first SACD. Schliessmann plays its delicate ramifications with a rarely found wealth of nuances and ends with an almost impressionistic tone that no longer seems to be of this world. The second version on Disc B, Track 9 is played with the second, softer intonated mechanics. The tone is middle and gentler, the character is more lyrical.

“Des Abends”, the first number of the Fantasy Pieces op. 12, appears delicate and transparent in its polyphony. These eight miniatures show Schumann’s strength in telling perfect stories in a small space, which in Burkard Schliessmann’s hands achieve a rarely heard poetic quality . The fifth number, “In the Night” (incidentally Schumann’s favorite piece from the work) does not get its passionate quality from the tempo alone. What other pianists unfortunately regurgitate at will, Schliessmann brings to life in an exciting but always transparent manner in the right proportion to the vocal middle section and thus achieves a narrative effect that is reminiscent of the legend of Hero and Leander, which Schumann subsequently recognized in this piece. is completely fair. The humorous “Crickets” are also poetically transcended and while other interpreters tend to make “Traumes Wirren” a superficial circus act, with Schliessmann every note comes to life and leads into the depths of the subconscious that plays tricks on us. Like the arabesque, the final second version of “Des Abends” on disc B is also played with the softer intonated mechanics. Detached from the context of the cycle of fantasy pieces op. 12, this version focuses more on timbres and once again Schliessmann creates an almost impressionistic quality here.

At the same time, the two tracks played with the soft intonated second mechanics (Arabesque and “Des Abends”) are also a sound preparation for the Nachtstück op. 23, which opens the third SACD of the album. Also in the first and fourth numbers of the cycle created in 1839, the title of which corresponds to the stories of the same name by E.T.A. Borrowed from Hoffmann’s, the softer hammer heads are used, which tonally suits the dark, constantly halting funeral march that opens the cycle. The movement appears gentle and introverted, but still dark, and almost has a hypnotic effect. Schliessmann works out the polyphonic structures in the second movement with the utmost perfection in touch, the capricious moments of the third movement impress with their coloring, while the final fourth piece, in which the softer intonated hammer heads are used again, sounds like it comes from another sphere.

The Three Fantasy Pieces op. 111 from Schumann’s time as music director in Düsseldorf seem like a return to his phantasmagoria for piano, which were written between 1837 and 1839 – a generally criminally neglected phase of his work in which Schumann wrote some of his greatest works. Schliessmann’s performance takes the listener through all regions of feeling, strong and passionate at the beginning, vocally in the second movement and with the right amount of energy, wonderfully developed contrasts in the middle section and finely structured arabesques at the end in the third movement.

The album concludes with the songs from the Frühe op. 133, which are rarely played due to their complexity and difficult accessibility and which Robert Schumann offered to the publisher F. W. Arnold shortly before he threw himself into the Rhine in February 1854. In his letter to Arnold, Schumann described the five pieces dedicated to the poet Bettina von Arnim as music “that describe the sensations as the morning approaches, but more as an expression of emotion than as painting.” (quoted from the liner notes). Schliessmann’s performance hits exactly this note. Despite the complexity of the composition, Schliessmann’s interpretation still appears transparent; Every note, every phrase is filled with meaning, explored intellectually and emotionally in depth and made tangible. Both for the chorale at the beginning and for the final piece, the second mechanism with the softer hammer heads is used again and creates a central, gentle tone. This work seems like an apotheosis of Schumann’s fantastically poetic piano work and forms the perfect, almost transcendent conclusion to this great album.

With Robert Schumann: Fantasies, Burkard Schliessmann has opened up new horizons for Schumann interpretation. His performances combine the intellect necessary to understand Schumann’s music, supreme poetry and just the right instinct for timbre, agogics and tempo. In the future, no listener and especially no artist will be able to ignore these recordings. Schliessmann puts one reference recording after another on this album, which also meets the highest standards in terms of sound, presentation and information content.

Robert Schumann: Fantasies by Burkard Schliessmann will be released on March 15, 2024 on the Divine Art label.