Diaries Schumann – Tiffany Poon
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Kinderszenen, Op 15 (1838)
Arabeske, Op 18 (1838-39)
Davidsbündlertänze, Op 6 (1837)
Tiffany Poon (piano)
rec. 2022, Reitstadel, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Germany
Reviewed as a digital download from a press preview
Pentatone PTC 5187 128 [60]
It is fitting that for her major-label solo debut, Tiffany Poon has chosen an all-Schumann program. Poon is a New York-based artist with an active social media presence and many dedicated followers. From all the evidence, Schumann’s music is an important part of the musical and personal journeys that she shares so candidly with her fans. On this Pentatone disc, recorded in Germany in August 2022, Poon plays two sets of character pieces, Kinderszenen, Op 15, and the Davidsbündlertänze, Op 6, along with the Arabeske, Op 18.
Poon effectively surmounts the first challenge of Schumann playing, to convey the shifting contrasts in character and mood built into the music. (The term ‘character piece’ refers to a short composition, simple in form, that is ‘full of character’, and Schumann’s beautifully organized collections of such contrasting pieces fully epitomize the genre.) In energetic ‘Florestan’ mode, Poon’s playing is mostly very clean and confident, and she is equally alert and sensitive to Schumann’s dreamy ‘Eusebius’ side. Her voicing of Schumann’s tricky textures is always nicely balanced, even if we might wish when appropriate for more ‘singing’ of the melodic line.
In general, Poon straightforwardly lets the music speak for itself, refusing to distort the flow by pushing and pulling the surface in a misguided effort at ‘expressivity’. But because Schumann’s foursquare phrases are often clunky, his distinctive musical rhetoric demands that the performer shape the musical phrases as if breathing. In the very best Schumann playing, this quality feels spontaneous. Poon’s playing here is very carefully worked out, and her phrasing sometimes has a sameness and lack of shape that detracts from the overall effect. (She plays with greater spontaneity in a live performance of Kinderszenen and Davidsbündlertänze from Dresden in June 2023, available on YouTube.)
Davidsbündlertänze is the quirkiest of Schumann’s collections, eighteen short pieces without poetic titles (though the expressive indications are crucial) in a dizzying array of textures and variety of keyboard figurations. It is difficult to single out a single reference performance, though there are many good ones; not surprisingly, most recordings, by the great and near-great alike, have both felicitous details and passages that are less convincing. That is to say, Davidsbündlertänze allows for considerable interpretative possibility.
Poon nails the character of each piece, but once established, some greater flexibility would be helpful. The energetic pieces tend to be quite fast and unbending. A few highlights: No 3 is certainly played ‘Mit Humor’. No 6 (‘Sehr rasch’), taken at quite a clip, has a real feel of rollicking 6/8 meter and is precisely judged (if a tad muddy in places). The tricky voicing in the outer sections of No 7 (‘Nicht schnell’) is very carefully balanced, although the middle section is rather undifferentiated. No 8 (‘Frisch’) is crisply and effectively played, but Poon remains rigidly anchored to the beat. No 9 (Lebhaft’) is full of interest, relaxing beautifully into the ending.
At the beginning of the second half (Schumann divides the score, at least nominally, into two halves of nine pieces each), in No 10 (‘Balladenmässig. Sehr rasch’), some overpedalling clogs up the texture, but the next several pieces are full of character. No 13 (‘Wild und lustig’) is particularly impressive and exciting, though the contrasting middle section plods. In No 14 (‘Zart und singend’), Poon really needs to ‘sing’ out more, though she certainly plays with the requisite tenderness. No 16 (‘Mit gutem Humor’) has lots of the requisite humor, though that quality might emerge even more at a slightly slower tempo. In No 17 (‘Wie aus der Ferne’), Poon doesn’t quite capture the sense of music emerging from a distance, though her playing is certainly appropriately quiet and calm. The recollection of the music of No 2 is captured nicely, as is the breathless momentum of the acceleration into the coda and subsequent broadening. How to connect the end of No 17 to the final postlude, No 18 (‘Nicht schnell’) is always a tricky problem.
Kinderszenen is in every way a more polished cycle than the Davidsbündlertänze, with many of the quirky edges smoothed over. Schumann’s poetic titles are immensely helpful in establishing the character of each of the thirteen gems in this set, which despite the many contrasting moods is deliciously all of a piece. Here Poon is up against some really formidable performances by Ivan Moravec (1987), Radu Lupu (1993), Nelson Freire (2002), Clara Haskil (1955) and Vladimir Horowitz (several versions), and many others as well.
As she was in the Davidsbündlertänze, in Kinderszenen Poon tends to be just a bit predictable but always remains sensitive and alert to character and mood. In ‘Von fremden Ländern und Menschen’, for example, she voices the textures splendidly, but compare, for example, Lupu’s greater variety of phrase shapes. I find ‘Curiose Geschichte’ to be metronomic and the very brisk ‘Hasche-Mann’ unrelenting, but I like Poon’s ‘Bittendes Kind’ a great deal. ‘Glückes genug’ is something of a run-through, so much less eventful than, say, Haskil. ‘Wichtige Begebenheit’ feels ponderous; at a slower tempo, Moravec provides much more phrase shape. Poon’s ‘Träumerei’ is charming. ‘Am Camin’ holds together well, while ‘Ritter vom Steckenpferd’ sweeps along with tremendous momentum, but gets a bit clogged up; compare the clarity of Freire. From ‘Fast zu ernst’ (Poon is more calm than ‘serious’ here) onwards, the playing is really first-rate, sensitive, varied in character. The contrasts within ‘Fürchtenmachen’ are effectively drawn, while ‘Kind im Einschlummern’ and ‘Der Dichter spricht’ are just lovely.
Separating the two cycles is a delightful, quite flexible performance of the Arabeske, Op 18.
Pentatone provides Poon with a very fine recorded piano sound, miked from the middle distance but providing plenty of detail. In her booklet note, Poon asks some existential questions, to which Schumann’s music offers some tentative answers. She juxtaposes some of her own diary entries and other musings with quotations from Schumann’s letters to Clara, quite an engaging and unusual approach.
I’ve enjoyed getting to know her playing, and very much look forward to hearing more from this fine pianist as she develops in the coming years. This disc will provide you with much pleasure if you wish to make her acquaintance.
Jeffrey Hollander
Help us financially by purchasing from
