KASP Records 57671, 69:38 (Distrib. www.kasprecords.com) ****:
In the annals of great Schumann interpretation, we recall Geza Anda, Artur Rubinstein, Yves Nat, Robert Casadesus, and Wilhelm Kempff, too often forgetting Swiss Adrian Aeschbacher (1912-2002), a pupil of Artur Schnabel whose excellent work with Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Furtwaengler remains precious to collectors and connoisseurs. Pianist-producer Donald Isler has gained permission from DGG to reissue several splendid 1950s LPs, herein remastered by Joseph Patrych in warm, jeweled sound.
Aeschbacher opens with the Three Romances, Op. 28, of which the second in F Sharp Major holds an honored place, as it is written on three staves, possibly to indicate the presence of father Wieck having come betwixt the star-crossed Robert and Clara. The third of the Romances displays Aeschbacher’s penchant for quick tempos, sharp attacks, as well as a lovely legato. The 1837 set of Dances of Davids-League occupies the major portion of the disc, a set of eighteen “tempi of initiation” against the forces of anti-intellectual dissolution. Virile, liquid, and imaginatively phrased, each of the pieces offers something of Aeschbacher’s spirited personality. The slow sections offer poetic intimacy of a pearly, nervous nature, the Schumann capacity for anxious obsession never far from the surface.
The recital ends with the Six Moments Musicaux of Schubert, impromptus if you will, each offering an opportunity for strength, suppleness of tone, and delicacy of harmonic modulation. Aeschbacher makes noble sense of the second of the set, Moderato, whose middle section in F Sharp Minor sings with exalted nostalgia. The little F Minor dances fleetly without affectation. The C Sharp Minor runs a bit fast, a gurgling freshet with aspirations to be Bach. The second F Minor gains militant momentum quickly, then manages to dance fleetly before its stormy, abbreviated opening returns. The last of the set Isler calls “oracular” in his program notes. If so, it is the disarmingly innocuous plainchant we hear in Blake’s poetry, the revelation of otherwise commonplace. Highly recommended to all serious collectors of piano performance.
— Gary Lemco
