What's required of a great
Schumann player? If the answer is poetry, fantasy, sensitivity, and virtuosity coupled with the talent for making melodies sing, bass lines ring, and inner voices sound plus a gift for touching the warm-beating heart of
Schumann's quintessentially Romantic music, then
Finghin Collins is a great
Schumann player. It is a very good thing that a young Irish pianist has undertaken
Schumann's complete piano works for the Swiss Claves label -- and if the rest are as fine as this two-disc first volume,
Collins may prove to be one of the great
Schumann players of the twenty first century. In the well-known Arabeske and Kinderszenen,
Collins fulfills every expectation while still finding new facets among these familiar gems. In the lesser-known Humoreske and Waldszenen, he makes a convincing case that they should be better known by granting them the depth and breadth they deserve. And in the least-known Fantasiestücke, Opp. 12 and 111, he persuades the listener that the pieces should be much better known by realizing all the shades of meaning in the title from the intimate to the outlandish. While in the past other pianists have undertaken recordings of
Schumann's complete piano music -- the redoubtable
Vladimir Ashkenazy perhaps finest among them --
Collins' passionate advocacy for the music is the quality that may ultimately make his cycle the one to get. Claves' digital sound is clear, warm, and open.