Schumann: Fantasy / Etudes Symphoniques / Piano Sonata No 2

Early in the Fantasy, which begins the disc, we realize that this is not going to be the kind of great performance we might have expected from Marc-André Hamelin. Although he plays the difficult piano writing with panache, there are places in the first movement where the left hand echoes the right hand's leading phrases and we simply don't hear them. He dashes through the treacherous march with splendid virtuosity and plays the long slow finale with beautiful tone and phrasing, but the music simply isn't eventful enough. Pianists like Fiorentino, Richter, and Backhaus have shown us what treasures this music holds, and what Hamelin offers simply isn't enough. The Sonata is the best performance on the disc, but even that doesn't have the wildness of spirit that Schumann put into the music. Hamelin's choice of edition for the Études is understandable (he plays Schumann's last version as published, without the additional music Brahms found and added to a critical edition), but again, the pianist doesn't make all the music's points. Not bad performances, but not the best Schumann. --Leslie Gerber