Schumann: Carnaval / Kreisleriana ~ Uchida

Schumann (Composer), Uchida (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Uchida
• Composer: Schumann
• Audio CD (March 14, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Phillips
• ASIN: B0000041B2
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,473 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Kreisleriana Op.16: 1. Ausserst Bewegt/Agitatissimo

2. Kreisleriana Op.16: 2. Sehr Innig Und Nicht Zu Rasch/Con Molta Espressione, Non Troppo Presto...

3. Kreisleriana Op.16: 3. Sehr Aufgeregt/Molto Agitato

4. Kreisleriana Op.16: 4. Sehr Langsam/Lento Assai

5. Kreisleriana Op.16: 5. Sehr Lebhaft/Vivace Assai

6. Kreisleriana Op.16: 6. Sehr Langsam/Lento Assai

7. Kreisleriana Op.16: 7. Sehr Rasch/Molto Presto

8. Kreisleriana Op.16: 8. Schnell Und Spielend/Vivace E Scherzando

9. Carnaval Op.9: Preambule

10. Carnaval Op.9: Pierrot

11. Carnaval Op.9: Arlequin

12. Carnaval Op.9: Valse Noble

13. Carnaval Op.9: Eusebius

14. Carnaval Op.9: Florestan

15. Carnaval Op.9: Coquette

16. Carnaval Op.9: Replique

17. Carnaval Op.9: Sphinxes

18. Carnaval Op.9: Paipllons

19. Carnaval Op.9: A.S.C.H.-S.C.H.A. (Letres Dansantes)

20. Carnaval Op.9: Chiarina

See all 29 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Schumann for Today, February 27, 2003

By 

JMB1014 "JMB1014" (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Schumann: Carnaval / Kreisleriana ~ Uchida (Audio CD)

Mitsuko Uchida deservedly ranks high among modern interpreters of Mozart and Schubert. Her Debussy "Douze Etudes" is flawless and her Beethoven "Emperor" a rousing and marvelous success. After hearing her "Keisleriana" and "Carnaval," however, I wonder why she has not recorded more Schumann? These are brilliant, articulate and wondrous readings. From the first bars of the "Kreisleriana," one of Schumann's dark and demanding collections of short pieces, which is closest in tone to his later "Humoreske," she sets the pieces ablaze with intellectual fire, powerfully evoking their rich emotional content and always with awe-inspiring technique. There is something more challenging, existential and intellectual about her approach than I have heard from other pianists. (Now that she has also recorded another Schumann album, with the Davidsbundlertanze and the Fantasie, one gets more of a feeling for the way she perceives Schumann. This is especially so because the new recording also includes a disc containing a wonderful interview of Ms. Uchida about Schumann.)

Ms. Uchida does not indulge the kind of mannered and oblique approach too many pianists (and others) adopt in approaching Schumann, as though he must be humored rather than enjoyed, as though he were mad first and a genius second. Few composers have been as thoroughly - and ineptly - compartmentalized and labeled as Schumann: he was trapped in the throes of a weird romantic, dualistic personality (Florestan and Eusebius), he mastered only short works for piano and could not handle long works, his later works are incomprehensible, etc. These and other shibboleths are being smashed by the dazzling recordings of Ms. Uchida, Vladimir Horowitz, John Eliot Gardiner, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Barbara Bonney, Gidon Kremer and Arkady Volodos.

Also worthwhile are John Worthen's very readable recent biography, "Schumann: Life and Death of a Musician," which is written for laypersons and debunks much of the clamorous dogma that Schumann must be seen first and foremost as mad, and John Daverio's excellent book, "Robert Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age," which is written for those with more musical background.

Among composers of lieder, Schumann has only one peer: Schubert. The legions who mindlessly venerate Schubert as the one great master of German song (and he plainly deserves to be venerated) have apparently never spent the time with Hermann Prey's or Barbara Bonney's gorgeous recordings of the lieder, to say nothing of Graham Johnson's superb set on Hyperion.

But for me, the "Kreisleriana" and its cousins, "Carnaval," "Humoreske" and, say, "Bunte Blatter," will always remain among the most intellectually ravishing, intimate and masterful of all classical works for piano or otherwise. It is a credit to Ms. Uchida's artistry that this recording stands out among the numerous versions by such masters as Cortot, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Ashkenazy and Kempff, to say nothing of Argerich, O'Rourke, Cooper, Schiff, Demus, Lupu and many others. The sound is splendid and she plays the pieces as Schumann revised them, not in the original version, as Pollini in his recording of the "Kreisleriana" does. She also includes the brief "Sphinxes" in "Carnaval." I sincerely hope Ms. Uchida will add more of the Schumann piano repertoire to her recorded works once - or perhaps even while - she is propounding Beethoven's piano music and accompanying Mozart violin sonatas and Schubert lieder (with Ian Bostridge).

I have read the other review of this disc and I wonder at the description of the "Carnaval" as "joyless," and the piano as "shallow and clangy." I have listened to this CD again and concluded that I cannot agree with either criticism. The piano is very fine and the "Carnaval" is rendered with a good deal of Romantic brio and passion. I stand by my original comments. Also, the disc has been remastered and released again.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Uchida is fierce and free in Schumann (shades of Argerich), July 28, 2006

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Schumann: Carnaval / Kreisleriana ~ Uchida (Audio CD)

Mitsuko Uchida has shaken off any lingering image of her as a china-doll Mozart interpreter. Taking on the larger-scaled paino music of Schumann, she works hard not to be delicate. In some ways that's a shame, because while her Kreisleriana is suitably full of fierceness and freedom of expression, her Carnaval is joyless. She rushes and at times bangs, giving little scope for the lightness and humor of Schumann's fantasy. She's not helped by a shaollow, clangy piano sound that becomes grating very quickly.