Search - Robert Schumann, Burkard Schliessmann :: Schumann: Kreisleriana/Symphonic Etudes

Schumann for the ages

John Beversluis | 06/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Burkard Schliessmann's previous discs have elicited high praise in recent issues of ARG. Donald Vroon went so far as to describe him as "the best pianist I know at entering the world and expressing the awareness of the German romantics" (July/Aug 1999). That is high praise indeed, but I think it's defensible. There is something personal and unique about Schliessmann's Schumann. It does not sound like anyone else's. I loved his earlier recording of the Fantasy in C, which was coupled with an equally magnificent Liszt Sonata in B minor (Bayer 100 293, Mar/Apr, under Liszt), but I'm even more impressed by this release. These are not beautiful performances--at least not in the usual sense of "beautiful". Schliessmann makes no attempt to prettify this music or to smooth out its (sometimes) rough pianistic edges. Instead, he accepts the music on its own terms and in the process manages to enter into Schumann's tormented sound world as few other pianists have done, allowing it to become an external expression of Schumann's tormented inner psyche. He is better than any other pianist I have heard--including Richter--in conveying the sense that this is deeply troubled music composed by a deeply troubled soul. Only Yves Nat (EMI 67141) approaches such profound identification with this music, but his playing lacks Schliessmann's flawless technique. Schliessmann's playing also bespeaks an uncommon sensitivity to Schumann's constantly fluctuating mood swings, from the passionate to the lyrical, from the tormented to the consoled, from the agitated to the serene. He does not have Wilhelm Kempff's poetic lyricism (DG 435 045) or Sviatoslav Richter's demonic intensity (Melodiya). But he does have many other sterling pianistic qualities--among them, a golden tone and an uncanny ability to invest Schumann's (often) thick chords and chordal progressions with great tonal clarity, making it utterly transparent. Whether he is coaxing these glorious chords from his instrument or executing Schumann's wild, tricky, and (often) uncomfortable passagework, every note is there: nothing is glossed over, slighted, or swept under the pianistic rug. Not even Horowitz's staggering performance of the Kreisleriana (CBS 42409) has quite this kind of sustained and cumulative impact. This is Schumann playing for the ages."

Lightning Strikes

Mark Jordan | Gambier, Ohio, USA | 04/06/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Genius is not a state of being, it is a flash of brilliance that happens to those who can open their minds to the possibilities of inspiration. Genius may not have smooth corners, it may not always be pretty. But it is overwhelming and viscerally real. And that's how I would describe Schumann's quirky, haunted "Kreisleriana". Or at least it should be. Frankly, few performances out there on the market are up to Schumann's demands for life, spontaneity, and constantly changing touch. But Burkard Schliessmann is. This remarkable pianist takes nothing for granted and refuses to fall back on tradition in his performances. I know of no performance more aware of the rapidly changing moods of this piece than Schliessmann's. The performance seems constantly awake, aware, and alive. This bypasses prominent past recordings such as Richter and Egorov quite handily. Horowitz remains intensely entertaining in his own distinctive manner, but even he sounds less fresh than Schliessmann. Suffice it to say, the lightning of genius has struck Schliessman's Schumann. Also beguiling the ear is the recorded sound of this release from Bayer records. This and other recordings from Bayer make me think that they are beginning to surpass everyone else in the business at the very tricky art of recording the piano. Stunningly good, highest recommendation."

Remarkable Yet a Bit Teutonic

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 06/19/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Reviewing Burkhard Schliessmann is quite a challenge. He writes with such insight on Robert Schumann - like Schumann, Schliessmann displays an exceptional gift as writer - the booklet alone is a keeper! What a lecture from the keyboard he might give on Schumann! I'm glad to have heard this performance, I'll certainly play it again - there are passages of fantastic playing.



However, I do have reservations. Since the other reviewers hear nothing but perfection, perhaps I'm elected to add some caveats. For starters, I wish I could believe he found real fancy in this most fanciful of music, rather than thinking as I listened that he's busy making points. This quality of fancy - like the quality of mercy - is never strained when playing Schumann's music; the pianist in his notes wonderfully describes all its myriad marvelously ever-present aspects. One might think he'd go from there, but being able to write superbly about such a subject is not quite the same as pulling it off in practice! Any pianist attempting to do the music of Schumann justice must be ever so careful to provide contrasts of color and density - neither of which Schliessmann seems consistently concerned about achieving - though he certainly plays some parts with brilliant command! And again, don't mistake my reservations for an overall negative - I'm very happy to own this performance!



I also take exception to these raves about the tone - to my ear Schliessmann's piano tone throughout comes across as clean and a tad monochromatic - modern and vaguely recalling Pires recent DG recording of the Schubert Impromptus - hardly a knock, but nowhere does one hear the glistening rainbow effects of a master colorist, either. Years ago I chanced to hear a major pianist testing a few pianos in New York. Two days later I was at the same site and another pianist was playing. What a difference! Before everything was black and white, now there were delectable colors. I won't name the famous first pianist, but the second was Tamas Vasary. And I'm sorry to say, but Schliessmann reminds me of the former. I must add, after a bit his Kreisleriana started to remind me of less successful Schumann compositons. A quip about Brahms C major piano sonata sprang to mind, "It's almost as hard to play as it is to listen to." If this recording's pianist could have found it in him to display some greater variety it would have been refreshing after a solid unrelieved hour and ten minutes plus of darker, sullen sonorites. This is music redolent not only of neurosis and inner thoughts, but the light-giving outdoors as well. Not just moonlight on the graveyard pervades Schumann!



In Kreisleriana specifically Schumann demands not only the attack and care we hear in this highly-thought out performance, but also "a ruminative inward glow", to quote Goldsmith. And that, for the main, is where I and this reading part ways. When Schliessmann does find this inner quality it shows up too much 'on command' - rather than accepting it as source, he dishes it out when the composer all but hangs out a calling card, as if to announce, "Play this passage with a lighter touch and some real charm!" Thus we face the odd dichotmy of this most probing of pianists missing some of this enigmatic work's very heart and soul in his dedication to elucidating "ALL".



Among older performances one has to go back to Kuerti for this type of bravado reading, though this recent reading is far more serious a construction. But with Kuerti there was a letting go, where by contrast in Schliessman's performance I hear less of the Romantic, and far too much of the Clinician, albeit an exacting and remarkable one. One section in particular he plays at way too slow a pace - it recalled Klemperer's Mahler Seventh opening movement. (I suppose if you're okay with that pace you'd not have any problems with the slower variation here.) Also, again, Schumann's piano writing has some built in problems that must be confronted - not only do your hands spend way too much time fighting it out, but this piece, Kreisleriana, runs along solidly and without relief in B flat - throw in the composer's aversion to the high and low - well, things start sounding too much the same if you're not particulary gifted at lightening the center. Too much deliberateness only exaggerates this. There's a hint too much of the world of Backhaus here, and not enough of the free spirit.



Schumann's best music always reminds me of Shakespeare's role King Lear - it's so complex and enigmatic, so suffused with paradoxes, so tightly wound, that only after a lifetime can the finest performers begin to do the artistry full justice. Hopefully Herr Schliessmann will in time move beyond his powerful intellectual architectural spotlighting and listen not just for the Shopenhauer quietude lurking behind the loud passages, but also for delights and charms free of too serious restraints. I also do not understand all these references to Richter - the two pianists are radically different, especially in finding color, but also in conveying spontanteous creativity. Right now Schliessmann seems far more headed for a final vision rather like Arrau's best Schumann, a grand and fully realized rumination, both anaytical and poised, and one making a achieved totality of the various convoluted strands. It will be interesting to see what Schliessmann comes up with in time.



Last commercial complaint - why should we pay more per record for a recording made in an empty hall by one performer - however talented - than we do for an entire blasted opera, in the case of Aida, complete with elephants! This smacks of the worst sort of popular music marketing.









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