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American Record Guide

Mr Schliessmann’s recordings have usually found favor with our reviewers, though of his Chopin, Mr Harrington remarked that slower tempos for the Preludes, Ballade 2, and Scherzo 3 prevented the performances from being “faster and more fiery” (Mar/Apr 2016). This release collects a number of Schumann works, some less played than others. 

As most people probably know, Schumann is one of my favorite composers—I like him because his approach to musical form is so novel. Within the easily recognized forms of his music (often ternary or rondo), he inserts phrases that seem not to fit: one might liken them to asides, sudden memories of past things, or even occasional stream-of-consciousness. Schliessmann recognizes this and capitalizes on it in all the performances. He often emphasizes the grand sweep of the large form of the music over a scrupulous concern about the note- to-note connections. To be sure, some of the tempos are slower (for instance, the opening gesture of `Soaring’ and most of `Whims’ in the Fantasy Pieces), but that often aids in revealing the complex texture of the music. The singing tone for which he has always been praised is intact—so important for a composer who used melody in such interesting ways. And he includes marvelous accounts of the Night Pieces and the Songs of the Morning, which many pianists avoid in favor of the more familiar works. 

One final, interesting fact: Schliessmann used two different keyboards for the Steinway D he performs on: the first results in a very bright tone, while the second is more intimate and warm. The keyboards, in turn, dictate different interpretive choices, readily on display in the two different recordings of the Arabeske. 

The sound is perfect; the recording engineers took great care to place a number of microphones in various points around the piano, resulting in one of the most beautiful-sounding recordings I’ve heard recently. 

In sum, this is a fascinating account of Schumann piano works well-known and not, and worth adding to a collection of recordings from other artists.