Schumann: Kinderszenen; Kreisleriana; Humoreske

This marvelous disc won all sorts of international awards when it was first issued a few years ago, and with good reason. Radu Lupu is a very special pianist. He doesn't record all that often, and he doesn't appear in concert all that frequently, either, owing to his reluctance to travel. He has long been regarded as one of the supreme interpreters of Schubert, but he is equally persuasive in this Schumann recital. He brings to this music his typically gentle, lovely piano tone, an acute sensitivity to the music's many moods, and most important of all, that sense of innocence and romantic poetry that gives Schumann's music its uniqueness. A great recording. --David Hurwitz