One of Schumann’s greatest works: a set of highly musically compressed fantasies for solo piano, wild, erratic, impetuous, uneasy, tender. Most of Schumann’s trademarks are here: daring harmonic leaps, complex or misleading rhythms, unusual textures and sonorities, a resistance to easy cadential propulsion. Played with fantastic imagination and gusto by Grimaud, who revels in the virtuosic and dangerous subjectivity of these pieces.
00:00 — 1. Äußerst bewegt (Extremely animated). A good herald of what is to come: the piece opens as if in the middle of a phrase, and the bass never coincides with a strong beat until the eighth bar. The sinister and absurdly dramatic outer sections flank a supple central section whose melody appears coyly unsure of itself.
02:38 — 2. Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (Very inwardly and not too quickly). An ABACA dance movement, featuring two intermezzos. This movement features lots of stunning counterpoint and some darkly wending chromaticism in the langsamer section.
11:48 — 3. Sehr aufgeregt (Very agitated). Quietly dramatic, with a lyrical middle section that Grimaud shades with great rythmic freedom. The explosive violence at the end is also handled perfectly.
16:08 — 4. Sehr langsam (Very slowly). Intensely poetic, bordering on the purely recitative.
19:40 — 5. Sehr lebhaft (Very lively). A scherzo so richly packed with musical ideas, and so effectively layered, that it feels that it was lifted right out of a sonata. One interesting feature, which is typical of Schumann’s rhythmic inventiveness, is the use of 12 consecutive hemiolas at 21:17. Grimaud brings a sharp, devilish liveliness to this that’s really compelling.
22:30 — 6. Sehr langsam (Very slowly). A touching, simple melody suddenly withdraws into itself, and recoils into into a restless C minor section. A great showcase of Schumann’s ability to write musical transitions.
26:21 — 7. Sehr rasch (Very fast). Again, tons of musical content crammed into this one. A bitter opening grows in ferocity through a central fugato section till a chorale is arrived at. Grimaud plays this with acid sharpness and perfect control.
28:28 — 8. Schnell und spielend (Fast and playful). A darkly comic, witty thing slickly slinking across the keyboard. It sounds as if written in two tempos: the right hand frisky, the left lumbering in slow octaves that appear to lag slightly behind the right. Even in the middle section beginning at 29:11 the two hands don’t seem to have figured out a good way to work with each other. The ending of this movement is gorgeously coy: the music lithely withdraws back into blackness, and the whole thing ends.