Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Piano Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.7 (1835)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54 (1845)
Widmung Op.25 No.1 (arr. solo piano, Franz Liszt Liebeslied S.566)
Beatrice Rana (piano)
Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nézet-Séguin
rec. 2022, Festspielhaus und Festspiele, Baden-Baden, Germany
Reviewed as lossless download
Warner Classics 5419729625 [57]

While this is not the first release to pair the concertos of the Schumanns – Presto lists three others – it is the first for at least twenty years, and certainly the one with the starriest lineup of soloist, orchestra and conductor. And beyond the familial connection, it is an entirely logical pairing, because of the influence of one on the other – if you don’t know which is which, look at the composition dates. In case you are wondering why Clara’s concerto is listed above as No. 1, it is how it was described in the booklet. Some Googling found that she started to write a second concerto (in F minor), but it was left unfinished; the first movement was published in 1994 as a Konzertsatz.

I was surprised to find that I didn’t have another recording of the Clara Schumann concerto in my collection, though I have certainly heard it before, most recently thanks to the always imaginative programming of Marc Taddei, the music director for Orchestra Wellington (New Zealand). I recall enjoying the performance, but not anywhere near as much as I did this not quite new recording (it was released in 2023, but somehow went under the radar here at MWI). The work is extraordinarily assured for the product of a fifteen-year old, and hints of her husband-to-be’s concerto-to-be are scattered throughout. There is drama, virtuosity, poetry, and even a significant role in the slow movement for a cello, something that her great friend-to-be Brahms surely had in mind when he did something similar in his second concerto. I know Beatrice Rana only from her quite wonderful Goldberg Variations, so this is my first encounter with her playing a concerto, and the performance is everything I’d imagined it would be. As I said, this performance made me sit up and pay attention to the work more than any previous listening, so I think that speaks volumes as to its quality.

The marvellous performance of Clara’s concerto makes the rather less successful one of Robert’s quite hard to understand. Perhaps because it is so well-known, soloist and conductor felt there was a need to do something a little “different” to make it stand out from the hundreds of recordings already in existence. When I say “different”, there isn’t actually anything particularly radical about it. At 31:56, it is relatively slow, but not exceptionally so. I have five in my collection that take under 31 minutes, but also five others over that mark, including one by Alfred Cortot at over 33. It feels more leisurely than slow, and there are places where Rana extends pauses more than usual, and tweaks the tempos. Likewise, the dynamics seem a little compressed – the COE sounds likes a chamber orchestra in the climaxes, and Rana would seem to have reined in her volume to match this. The strings are particularly lightweight (I’m steering away from using the adjective “thin”). It would seem to be a conscious decision by the artists as there wasn’t this sense in the Clara concerto. Let’s be clear, Rana’s playing is assured, and there are some gloriously poetic moments, but overall, it just doesn’t work for me. The song arrangement is a touching tribute to the Schumanns’ relationship, and sensitively played.

The booklet notes include an interesting conversation between Rana and Nézet-Séguin, discussing the significance of Clara’s concerto in terms of how it influenced Robert’s (and possibly Brahms 1 and Liszt 1). It is not the most generous of runtime; surely a solo piece of Clara’s or her Konzertsatz could have been included, perhaps as the opener. While the sound is clear enough, it is quite compressed, and certainly not one of the better orchestral recordings I have heard recently.

Something of a mixed bag then, but you should certainly hear the Clara, as it will make you think so much more of the work.

David Barker

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