Schumann: Humoreske; Studies Op 56; Gesänge Der Frühe

Piotr Anderszewski (piano) Virgin Classics 642 0220****

The 1839 Humoreskeis probably the most unjustly neglected of Schumann's large-scale piano works. Its challenges are a bit like those of communicating a nearly half-hour long, sometimes meandering stream of consciousness while conveying the illusion of a genuine central focus. Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski dreams, dawdles, and gushes with just the right kind of persuasive unpredictability. He follows the Humoreskewith his own two-handed arrangement of Schumann's Studies for the Pedal Piano, pieces which, for obvious reasons, organists have adopted into their repertoire, but which benefit, even in Anderszewski's blurry accounts, from the dynamic shaping available on a piano. And the late Gesänge der Frühe (Morning Songs)glow with suitable mystery in Anderszewski's hands. See url.ie/57cs