I liked Yeol Eum Son’s previous release, of Mozart, very much, and am also keen on her Schumann, if not without some doubts. She deals a majestic and intimate card at the start of the C-major Fantasy (Opus 17), if admiring the view too much, for the music is threatened to come to a standstill, but overall her generous spirit serves Schumann’s conflicts well, if occasionally losing threads; beautifully sensitive though her playing is, structure is sacrificed, the first movement too dreamy, for example. Plenty of virtuosity is evident for the second, although a little more impetus is needed (even allowing for Schumann’s finger-twisting demands) to avoid appearing cautious. But the pianist comes into her own with the slow Finale: luminous-sounding love by moonlight, if maybe too indulged, but a scene a world-away is certainly created. And then Yeol Eum Son digs deep into the eight sections of Kreisleriana (Opus 16), soaring and exploring; and if passions can be a little inhibited (the opening number) then Yeol Eum Son has a hotline to Schumann’s poetry (the greater part of the work). Swings and Roundabouts, then, for a release well-worth acquiring and keeping; and the bonus is track 12, a perfectly modulated, lightly touched, reading of the Opus 18 Arabeske, a charming encore. Onyx 4202.
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