Customer Reviews

Pletnev Plays Schumann

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Few pianists playing and recording these days polarize audiences the way Mikhail Pletnev does. The reasons for not appreciating his approach to Schumann, in this case, are solid academic arguments, and from some of the reviews here written there is much to learn about pianism in general.

This listener falls into the admiring category. Knowing that the Romantic pianists and composers played from the heart at times more so than the mind, Pletnev seems to fit into the heady team of the salon gatherings from the time of Schumann. His liberties taken with ritards and rubatos, with phrasing and with tempi, may sound indulgent to some, but to this listener Pletnev plays with complete charm and candor and heart on the sleeve approach without neglecting his extraordinarily impeccable musicianship and intelligence. One can nearly hear the salon ladies swoon and faint and that makes for exciting listening - if this superb recording is approached in the Romantic mindset.

Pletnev surveys the 'Symphonic Etudes', Op. 13, the Fantasie in C major, Op. 17, the much loved 'Album (Colored) Leaves', Op. 99, and the elegant 'Arabeske in C major, Op. 18. His technique is light, airy, supple, sure, and spontaneous in approach - and for this listener that is enough! Grady Harp, August 06

In his role as a divider, not a uniter, Pletnev has raised a few hackles here with his Schumann CD, recorded over a three day period in 2003. The romantic style of Russian piano playing became preserved in amber during the soviet period, and today, unleashed upon the world, it reminds us of a performance style that can be, as critics allege, self-indulgent and even egotistical. For myself, there is enough liberty in Schumann's music to allow a wide range of personal interpretation. Pletnev doesn't exceed the limits set by, say, Horowitz and Richter. He takes more liberties than Kissin did in his 1990 Carnegie Hall debut, which featured the Symphonic etudes--Kissin swashbuckled through to exciting effect, but his interpretation feels a bit too straightforward on second listen. Pollini is commanding in a way that Pletnev doesn't aim for. He is reproducing the style of Romantic reveries that gives the impression of improvising at the keyboard, not sending chills through an audience hanging on to every note of a virtuoso.

the same approach pertains to the Fantasy in C, allowing us to feel only infrequently carried away by his technique. If you want either work done at a steady tempo with extrovert energy, seek elsewhere. With Pletnev it's always a balancing act between exasperation at his quirks and admiration for his artistic flashes, yet moment by moment I am far more engaged than I would be by, say, Perahia or even the admirable young pianist Jonathan Biss. I like their way with Schumann, too -- we are lucky to have so much choice -- yet Pletnev stakes out a special place, the long lead review that denigrates Pletnev's style has described what is going on very well, but my reaction is to be pleasantly intrigued rather than put off.

As a technical matter, the order and choice of the Symphonic Etudes has always been an open question. Kissin and most other modern interpreters sprinkle in the five variations composed in 1834 but later excised by Schumann; they were published on in 1873. Pletnev inserts Var. 1 and 5 from these additions after the printed Var. 7, while omitting Var. 8. It's an idiosyncratic choice but hardly outrageous. DG's sound is exceptionally good, very close up but never bangy, and the instrument itself is gorgeous.

I don't know what some of the others reviewer's problems are. This is a most wonderful recording of music by the arch-romanticist. Seldomly have I heard a living (i.e. contemporary) pianist put so much of weight and colors in an interpretation of classical romantic repertoire (only exception: Mustonen in his Beethoven!).

Pletnev makes each note count, he phrases spaciously and lets the pieces breathe. Ahhh, Schumann, was my first reaction. Ahhh, Schumann, is to this very day my last reaction.

Highly recommended.

This isn't an album I would pay full price for, and luckily I didn't have to. Pletnev has some interesting ideas in the Symphonic Etudes, but the Fantasy is not as successful due to some questionable tempo choices--it simply drags in parts. Tone is plush as on previous DG releases, with occasionally explosive bass in the Fantasy and remarkably airy playing in its final movement. Filler pieces (Bunte Blaetter and Arabesque) are adequate but the disc is not quite satisfying as a whole. Pollini and Richter remain touchstones in these works.

Pletnev is a great performer. Same as Sokolov. Pletnev is totally in balance and the best of his generation now. He is exiting, elegant,soft, romantic and of course technically perfect. And very wise. I have all his CD's and listen always to him in the Concert building in Amsterdam. I hope he will be playing Joh.Seb.Bach sometime.
I recommend his Listz performance (CD)and Carl Ph.Em. Bach CD. Both is great and perfect! Listen to him if you are a good listener and you will agree.
Margaret Kels.

He is a great performer. Same as Sokolov. Pletnev is totaly in balance and the best of his generation now. Elegant,soft, romantic and of course technical perfect. And very wise. I have all his CD's and listen always to him in the Concert building in Amsterdam. I hope he will be playing Joh.Seb.Bach sometime.
I recommend his Listz performance (CD)and Phil.Eman.Bach CD. Both is great and perfect! Listen to him if you are a good listener and you will agree.
Margaret Kels.

I'll begin by saying I am not a great fan of the music of Robert Schumann, the noted manic-depressive whose manic episodes resulted in virtually all his compositions. I regularly hear that manic side of him and he is on display in some of these pieces.

I bought this to compare the arch-colorist Pletnev against the arch-intellectual Richter in the Symphonic Etudes. I like what Pletnev has to say in this music. He is uncompromising and unpredicatble. His piano tone is marvelous with a recording to match. He seems to know what he wants to do all the time.

I compared Richter's 1976 recording against the Pletnev. There was a great difference in the sound. Even though Richter sounded good, Pletnev sounded great in comparison, as if he was playing in the room with me. But there was no comparison in terms of interpretation. Richter is a master, where Pletnev is a talented colorist.

The rest of the CD is fine if you like Schumann. The Fantasy is typical Schumann and Bunte Blatter is very nice little pieces of joy. But overall, I would never find this disk satisfying since the main course doesn't compare.

I am listening to this recording as I write. Periodically, I have to check the cd player to make sure it hasn't cut off . . . No, it's just Pletnev playing games with the music again. Totally against Schumann's indications in the score, Pletnev sometimes speeds up, sometimes slows down, sometimes gets very loud, sometimes gets very quiet, sometimes slows down and gets quiet simultaneously so that it seems that he's decided to take a break. Well, yes he puts in pauses of many second that are not indicated in the score. If it sounds like I do not like this recording, that is correct. Schumann is one of my favorites and I bought this recording on the strength of some earlier Pletnev recordings that I like very much (Scarlatti, Tchaikovsky). To say that I am disappointed with these performances is an understatement. They are awful, unless you happen to like your Schumann co-authored by Pletnev. These are not interpretations -- they are recompositions. To be specific, the Symphonic Etudes, one of Schumann's greatest pieces (probably the greatest variations written for piano since Bach's Goldberg and Beethoven's Diabelli), are played in a sort of free form never intended by the composer. Rather, the Etudes are among Schumann's most rigorously-structured compositions, calling for an interpretation that brings out this structure. Pletnev does not do so, but rambles high and low, here and there, soft and loud through all of the variations, with no apparent justification or rationale, certainly not from Schumann's score. To illustrate how personal and idiosyncratic is this interpretation, Pletnev adds two of Schumann's five unpublished variations (other pianists play either none of the variations or add all five of them) IN PLACE OF the original Variation VIII. Did you hear what I just wrote? Pletnev removes one of the standard portions of this score and substitutes it with two non-standard pieces. According to the liner notes (which are actually quite well-done, probably the best thing about this production), this rearrangement of the score is done because for Pletnev it is "a sequence that he finds musically particularly convincing" -- well so much for any insight that a mere composer like Schumann might have had into his own piece -- Pletnev's personal insight will have to suffice for this performance. Moving to the second piece on the disc, the Fantasy in C, perhaps Schumann's greatest composition and certainly one of the majestic peaks of the piano literature, is similarly butchered. I guess you could at least say that Pletnev's excesses are better served in this unabashedly romantic work than in the Etudes, which demand a more classical, structured approach. Nevertheless, the romanticism Schumann wrote into the score -- which is a kind of love letter to his beloved, (then) inaccessible Clara -- is quite sufficient, thank you, without uncalled-for excesses from Pletnev. The silence I referenced above occurs about three minutes into Pletnev's performance of this piece (and it is a long silence), right before the fortissimo chords in the opening movement of the Fantasy, effectively squelching the tension built up in Schumann's score. But I digress by noting specific instances of Pletnev excess. I have finally turned off the CD player following the second movement of the Fantasy: I cannot bear to hear the butchering of one of the most beautiful slow movements in the literature. Thus, I cannot comment further on that movement, nor on the Bunter Blatter and Arabesque that comprise the remainder of this generously (77 min.) filled disc. Please avoid. This disc may cause you to love Pletnev. It is unlikely to cause you to love Schumann. On a positive note, the recorded sound is superb, very natural.

No one would disagree that Pletnev has both technique and ideas, but in this recording I'm afraid he is not only idiosyncratic, but willful and egotistical. He pushes and pulls the rhythmic pulse and seems almost to be rewriting the scores in question; indeed he scrambles the order of the Variations and drops Variation VIII. This, plus the odd overuse of pedal that smears harmonies and individual lines, and you have a self-indulgent recital that certainly will not appeal to those of who consider this music some of Schumann's best. There are some elegant and poetic moments, but they cannot rescue this mostly awful set of performances.

Like most classical composers, Schumann wrote some wonderful material ---- and also composed some pieces that were rather pedestrian. Perhaps these compositions belong in the pantheon of exceptional works, but they didn't do much for me, an advanced amateur listener. Instead of wanting to hear more, as in the case of Beethoven and Mozart's piano works, I kept wishing this CD would come to an end. There are Schumann compositions I really like, such as his symphonies, piano quartets, and piano trios; but these particular pieces do not invite me to repeated hearings.