Instrumental
Natasha Loges falls in love with Schumann thanks to Joseph Tong’s fresh take
R Schumann
Arabeske, Op. 18; Fantasie,
Op. 17; Papillons, Op. 2; Faschingsschwank aus Wien Joseph Tong (piano)
Quartz QTZ 2134 74:47 mins
This recital collects four works from the 1830s, including the magisterial Fantasie. The pieces are wellknown but Tong’s playing revealed Schumann to me as a thrilling new love rather than a familiar old friend.
Schumann’s numerous musical personalities – the heartfelt, the madcap, the enraged, the scholarly – are each given time to materialise before evanescing. The Fantasie, a work which has left generations of pianists in fear and trembling, is virtuosic, but never obtrusively so. The poignant, searching cadences which close the first movement feel open-ended and mysterious. The explosive central movement has fire and passion but is never shouty, its famously precarious closing leaps grand and spacious, rather than panic-stricken.
The multifarious procession of characters in Papillons (the insightful liner notes are useful when approaching this enigmatic work) comes fully to life. Schumann’s occasionally baffling performance indications are intelligently realised throughout. Faschingsschwank aus Wien – not the easiest piece to hold together – is mostly witty and exuberant. Tong doesn’t prettify the ungainlier passages, or soften the occasional brashness in the composition, but balances them with lyricism elsewhere.
Multiple inner voices are lovingly teased out, revealing Schumann’s contrapuntal mastery and giving a spacious feel to this intimate music. Tong has a deep understanding of harmony, and a fine sense of texture and colour. Most pleasingly, he reveals the self-quotations that weave the works together and collectively evoke Schumann’s creative world. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★
The explosive central movement has fire and passion