R. Schumann, S. Rachmaninoff: Piano Music, Gesänge der Frühe Op.133, Etudes-Tableaux Op.39

Two faces of virtuosity

What constitutes virtuosity in musical performance? Speed and accuracy offer only a partial answer. The command of dynamics, timbre and voicing is equally demanding, while the ability to shape a climax or sustain a musical argument requires something beyond mechanical control. Some of the hardest pieces conceal their complexity beneath an appearance of simplicity.

The two cycles recorded here test these complementary forms of virtuosity. Rachmaninoff’s Études-tableaux Op. 39 explore the piano’s most formidable technical possibilities; Schumann’s Gesänge der Frühe Op. 133 place comparable demands on a performer’s understanding of musical thought, balance and expression. Together, they offer a journey through the instrument’s full palette.

Schumann: Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133

As a young musician, Schumann was fascinated by the virtuoso tradition and particularly by Paganini. That fascination left its mark on works such as Carnaval and the Symphonic Études. His imagined figures Florestan and Eusebius embodied the fiery and introspective sides of his musical personality. Gesänge der Frühe, composed in 1853 and dedicated to Bettina von Arnim, belongs to a very different, late stage of his creative life.

The title, Songs of the Dawn, is especially moving in the context of Schumann’s final years. The challenge is not primarily the number of notes, but the concentrated and often elusive musical argument. A subtle network of recurring motifs and tonal relationships binds the five pieces into a cycle. Their beauty depends on the pianist’s ability to convey changes of perspective without sacrificing coherence.

The opening Im ruhigen Tempo has the character of a chorale. Its apparent simplicity demands complete control of sound, voicing, balance and phrasing. The second piece, Belebt, nicht zu rasch, develops related ideas through varied gestures: flowing triplets, march rhythms, scherzando staccatos and sudden accents. The third, Lebhaft, combines Schumann’s characteristic dotted rhythms with compound metre, creating an unusual blend of vigour and dance. Horn-like sonorities suggest the Romantic world of nature and the hunt.

In the fourth piece, Bewegt, descending arpeggios evoke a harp beneath an expressive right-hand melody. Nostalgia and inwardness become central to its atmosphere. The final movement returns to the tempo and manner of the opening before developing an embellished chorale. Elements from the preceding pieces contribute to a conclusion that is both serene and deeply affecting.

Rachmaninoff: Études-tableaux, Op. 39

Rachmaninoff’s virtuosity belongs more visibly to the tradition of the great pianist-composers. Yet these studies are not isolated displays of brilliance. Like Schumann’s Symphonic Études, they form a meaningful network of related ideas, and performing the complete set reveals connections that can be obscured when individual pieces are heard separately.

The second cycle of Études-tableaux, Op. 39, was written in 1916-1917, before Rachmaninoff left Russia. It followed the earlier Op. 33 set, to which the sixth study had originally been connected. The music’s dark imagery and dramatic contrasts can suggest a world on the verge of change, although such associations remain interpretations rather than an explicit programme for the entire cycle.

Some of the images behind individual studies became known when Rachmaninoff supplied explanations for Ottorino Respighi’s orchestral arrangements. The second evokes the sea and seagulls; the sixth relates to Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf; the seventh presents a funeral scene; and the ninth has the character of a march. These suggestions illuminate the music without exhausting its expressive meaning.

The first study combines restless chromaticism with lavish harmonies and severe technical demands. The second offers a more contemplative contrast, opening with a diatonic sequence of arpeggios. The third is brilliant and rhythmically driven, with powerful accents that unsettle the musical surface. The fourth plays on scherzo-like gestures and the character of a humoresque, while the fifth is among the cycle’s most passionate and majestic pieces.

The fairy-tale associations of the sixth take on a dark, almost Gothic intensity. The seventh expands into a solemn funeral narrative. The eighth is more elegiac and lyrical, while the ninth brings the set to a grand conclusion through its commanding sonority and richly coloured harmonies. Across the cycle, technical power must serve a sustained expressive vision.

These two programmes explore orchestral sonorities, delicate timbral suggestions, formidable physical demands and the elusive movement of musical thought. Their pairing makes clear that true virtuosity embraces both the spectacular and the inward.

Based on the album notes by Chiara Bertoglio, revised from the original booklet.