On three CDs, the pianist Burkard Schliessmann bundles piano pieces by Robert Schumann that can be categorised as ‘fantasy pieces’. As a renowned expert in the music of the German Romantics, Schliessmann’s interpretations open up completely new, surprising and unexpected horizons and lead into fascinating spheres of poetry, tone colours, expression and agogics.

An essay by the pianist in the trilingual booklet provides information about the special interpretation approach under the label ‘Phantasmagorias’. Since the release of the album, the reviews have been overflowing with enthusiasm, and one can only agree with this in every respect. Schliessmann’s playing is richly coloured and multi-faceted, reflecting every required mood, captivating and with stupendous technique; no detail of Schumann’s scores goes undetected.

The pianist plays on an unusual Steinway grand piano (D-612236), which is equipped with two keyboards including action and hammers
(one lighter, one darker).

The recording technology in the Teldex Studio in Berlin with 14 microphones is also exceptional.

***** All in all, this album is not only highly recommended, but really a MUST!

Auf drei CDs bündelt der deutschstämmige, überwiegend in den USA lebende Pianist Burkard Schliessmann Klavierstücke Robert Schumanns, die namentlich oder im Untertitel als »Fantasie« bezeichnet bzw. durch entsprechende Hinweise des Komponisten diesem Genre zuzuordnen sind. Als ausgewiesener Fachmann für die Musik der deutschen Romantiker eröffnet Schliessmann hier vollkommen neue, ebenso überraschende wie ungeahnte Horizonte. Er interpretiert nicht nur brillant in der Tradition großer Romantiker wie Shura Cherkassky, Bruno Leonardo Gelber und Poldi Mildner, mit denen er zusammengearbeitet hat, Schliessmann führt vielmehr noch weit darüber hinaus in geradezu faszinierende Sphären von Poesie, Klangfarben, Ausdruck und Agogik.

Ein beeindruckender Essay des Pianisten im dreisprachigen Booklet informiert über dessen besonderen Interpretationsansatz. Unter dem Label „Phantasmagorien“ sieht Schliessmann Schumanns Soloklavierwerke im Grunde für Singstimme und Klavier gedacht. Er bezieht sich damit auf die bekannte Doppelbegabung des Komponisten für Literatur und Musik. Alle Stücke verbindet der Pianist mit zentralen Gedichten der Romantik, die zur Assoziation von Poesie, Illusion und Wirklichkeit in Schumanns Gedankenwelt beitragen. Hier, wie auch in den Werk-Einführungen liegt Schliessmann vielleicht nicht in jedem Detail ganz richtig, in seiner darauf basierenden Interpretation jedoch zu hundert Prozent! Was ja auch das Wesentliche ist, denn wir hören hier einen Musiker, der Schumann und seine Klaviermusik nicht nur verstanden hat, sondern sozusagen lebt.

Seit Erscheinen des Albums überschlagen sich die Kritiken förmlich vor Begeisterung, dem kann man sich nur in jeder Hinsicht anschließen. Schliessmann startet mit Schumanns acht Fantasien der Kreisleriana op. 16. Getragen von düsterem, aber dennoch leidenschaftlich dräcngendem Charakter ist die Musik inspiriert von E.T.A. Hoffmanns autobiographisch geprägter, fiktiver Figur des genialischen Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler, dessen exzentrisches Leben in diversen Werken erzählt wird.

Schliessmann bietet eine farben- und facettenreiche, jede geforderte Stimmung widerspiegelnde, mitreißende Interpretation. Am Schluss gelingt ihm dann noch eine kaum für möglich gehaltene Ausdruckssteigerung, die ihresgleichen sucht.

Es folgt die Fantasie op. 17, einer von Schumanns Achttausendern sozusagen. Schliessmann hat sie schon oft interpretiert und auch eingespielt. Seine jahrelange Beschäftigung mit dem Werk führt zu einer reifen Meisterleistung: da bleibt kein Detail aus Schumanns Partitur unbemerkt, da wird alles mit großer Intensität, voller Leidenschaft und in stupender Technik umgesetzt. Die Arabeske op. 18, deren Titel Schumann der bildenden Kunst entlehnt und damit treffend das Ornamental-Spielerische der Musik beschreibt, wird oft als „Leichtgewicht“ unterschätzt. Schliessmann erkennt den stellenweise doch recht komplexen Charakter des Stücks, dessen kontrastierende Momente er je nachdem zart oder auch kraftvoll mit klarer Artikulation vermittelt.

Auch seine Fantasiestücke op. 12 bezieht Schumann auf Techniken der bildenden Kunst, über einen literarischen Umweg sozusagen:
den Titel prägte insbesondere E.T.A. Hoffmann in seinem Werk Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier mit Hinweis auf den französischen Zeichner, Radierer und Kupferstecher Jacques Callot (1592–1635). Schumanns acht Stücke sind fantasievolle Stimmungsgemälde, die Begebenheiten, Eindrücke oder Empfindungen musikalisch nachzeichnen. Schliessmann interpretiert das nuancenreiche Kaleidoskop motivischer, harmonischer und rhythmischer Finessen virtuos, teilweise in beinahe impressionistischer Qualität. Die Arabeske und »Des Abends« (op. 12,1) runden diese CD ab. Zum zweiten Mal eingespielt, aber nun mit einer weicher intonierten Mechanik, mit zusätzlichen dunkleren und wärmeren Klavierregistern, im Charakter sanfter, lyrischer.

Ebenfalls auf literarische Vorlagen geht der Titel Nachtstücke op. 23 zurück, mit denen Schliessmann die letzte CD eröffnet. In diesem Fall steht wieder E.T.A. Hoffmanns erzählerisches Werk Pate, ohne dass Schumann inhaltlich weiter daran anknüpft. Fast schwermütig, düster und geheimnisvoll sind die eher gleichförmigen musikalischen Abläufe gestaltet, getragen von starker Sehnsucht nach Verständnis. Schliessmann hat verstanden und trifft genau den richtigen Ton mit einem tiefen Gefühl für die subtilen Strukturen. Die Drei Fantasiestücke op. 111 offenbaren zwischen Dramatik, Lyrik und Leidenschaft rasch wechselnde Stimmungen, plötzliche Gefühlsausbrüche inbegriffen. Schliessmann bringt auch hier sein ganzes pianistisches Können brillant ein und schafft wiederum eine echte Schumann-Atmosphäre.

Zum Abschluss erklingen die fünf Gesänge der Frühe op. 133, Schumanns letzter, etwas geheimnisumwitterter Klavierzyklus.
Entsprechend tief- oder gar hintergründig wirken die Stücke daher, dazu strukturell recht komplex. Schliessmann gestaltet wieder mit großem Einfühlungsvermögen transparent, klangschön und besonders in den gesanglichen Passagen ergreifend lyrisch.
Der Pianist spielt auf einem ungewöhnlichen Steinway-Flügel (D-612236), der mit zwei Klaviaturen samt Mechanik und Hämmern (eine heller, eine dunkler) ausgestattet ist. Auch die Aufnahmetechnik im Teldex Studio in Berlin mit 14 Mikrofonen ist außergewöhnlich, was dem Album absolut zu Gute kommt. Unter anderem stellt ein Studiopublikum die Atmosphäre einer Live-Aufführung nach.

Il pianista bavarese ha registrato, in un lussuoso cofanetto di tre SACD per l’etichetta audiofila Divine Art, sette composizioni del compositore romantico di Zwickau, evidenziando come il suo pianismo sia il risultato di una lucidità intellettuale mutuata dall’ambito letterario e da quello musicale, sintesi perfetta di quell’ideale romantico tedesco esaltato da E.T.A. Hoffmann.

Affrontando l’analisi di questo corposo ed elegante cofanetto della Divine Art, che presenta tre SACD con opere pianistiche di Robert Schumann nell’interpretazione del pianista tedesco Burkard Schliessmann, non posso che essere subito d’accordo con l’artista bavarese quando afferma che non sono tanto le opere pianistiche schumanniane, quanto le composizioni per voce e pianoforte che, nella loro combinazione di letteratura e musica, contribuiscono alla comprensione decisiva di questo compositore romantico e del suo potere di pensiero riguardo all’associazione tra poesia, illusione e realtà.

Mr Schliessmann’s recordings have usually found favor with our reviewers, though of his Chopin, Mr Harrington remarked that slower tempos for the Preludes, Ballade 2, and Scherzo 3 prevented the performances from being “faster and more fiery” (Mar/Apr 2016). This release collects a number of Schumann works, some less played than others. 

As most people probably know, Schumann is one of my favorite composers—I like him because his approach to musical form is so novel. Within the easily recognized forms of his music (often ternary or rondo), he inserts phrases that seem not to fit: one might liken them to asides, sudden memories of past things, or even occasional stream-of-consciousness. Schliessmann recognizes this and capitalizes on it in all the performances. He often emphasizes the grand sweep of the large form of the music over a scrupulous concern about the note- to-note connections. To be sure, some of the tempos are slower (for instance, the opening gesture of `Soaring’ and most of `Whims’ in the Fantasy Pieces), but that often aids in revealing the complex texture of the music. The singing tone for which he has always been praised is intact—so important for a composer who used melody in such interesting ways. And he includes marvelous accounts of the Night Pieces and the Songs of the Morning, which many pianists avoid in favor of the more familiar works. 

One final, interesting fact: Schliessmann used two different keyboards for the Steinway D he performs on: the first results in a very bright tone, while the second is more intimate and warm. The keyboards, in turn, dictate different interpretive choices, readily on display in the two different recordings of the Arabeske. 

The sound is perfect; the recording engineers took great care to place a number of microphones in various points around the piano, resulting in one of the most beautiful-sounding recordings I’ve heard recently. 

In sum, this is a fascinating account of Schumann piano works well-known and not, and worth adding to a collection of recordings from other artists.

A double SACD from the English record label Divine Art released a few months ago allows us to get to know a German pianist better, Burkard Schliessmann, one of the best and most interesting international pianists of the last few decades, given that in our country his name still circulates almost exclusively among piano music enthusiasts. These two SACDs were recorded live between 3 and 5 April 2023, when the pianist from Aschaffenburg held two concerts at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, performing pages by Bach, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann, thus putting into play an interpretative compendium with a precise common thread, which can be summarized in the concept of the emergence, through the Kantor, and the progressive concretization of the tonal language and its supreme pianistic affirmation through that triad of romantic geniuses, as the Bavarian interpreter himself wanted to highlight in the accompanying notes in the booklet in three languages (Italian is obviously missing) hosted in the elegant box set.

The anthology of pieces presented during these concerts in Sacile are extremely interesting and decidedly demanding: in the order of the playlist of the two SACDs we have respectively Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826, the Concerto Italiano, BWV 971 and the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, while by Mendelssohn Schliessmann presents a rarely performed piece, namely the nineteen Variations sérieuses, Op. 54, which bring the first disc to a close; on the second disc, however, we have Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Op. 17 and Chopin’s Waltz in C sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2, with the addition of two encores, both again by Schumann, the twelfth piece of Carnaval, Op. 9, entitled Chopin, and the third of the eight Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, namely Warum? (for a total duration of the two SACDs of almost ninety-four minutes).

What is meant by “partita”? Well, at the time of the Kantor this term, which was originally used for a series of variations performed above a bass, was by now completely analogous to that of “suite”; therefore, it indicated a series of dances introduced by a piece of an improvisational nature which, in Bach’s six for harpsichord, is called in turn prelude, symphony, overture, fantasy, praeambulum, toccata. The first partita dates back to 1726 and from that moment the supreme genius from Eisenach composed one every year, to be precise on the occasion of the publishers’ fair which took place annually in Leipzig. Thus, in 1731 he brought together the six written partitas and published them as the first part of the so-called Klavierübung. The overture which opens the second partita consists, after the introductory chord, on which there is the indication “grave”, of a few adagio bars. An allemande, a Corrente, a Sarabande and a Rondeau follow. The last movement is truly unique, defined by Bach as a capriccio. The choice of this title is given by the fact that it is a piece free from the usual formal constraints and is made up of two parts, both repeated twice, with the imaginative theme of the first that reappears ingeniously reversed at the beginning of the second.

Another astonishing masterpiece is the Italian Concerto, in which Bach used the two manuals of the harpsichord to create a series of contrasts, clearly alluding to the type of compositional process developed by Antonio Vivaldi, as in the case of the theme of the ritornello that is treated in a contrapuntal way. Taking inspiration from the title of the piece, it can be said that the composition as a whole takes on the meaning of a keyboard reduction of an authentic orchestral work. The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, probably composed during Bach’s years in Cöthen from 1717 to 1723, is nothing short of a visionary work, looking far beyond its time in terms of formal construction, structure, character and musical language.

On an interpretative level, Burkard Schliessmann proves to be an atypical German artist, in the sense that his Bach is neither obsessively analytical, nor anchored to a performance dimension tied exclusively to the undeniable theological patina that such music expresses, but rather devoted to a vision that is closer to a Mediterranean esprit by way of a passionate jolt that feverishly runs through his reading, without however ever losing that indispensable discipline of touch and the relative mastery of the keyboard. Let me be clear, with this I do not mean to say that his is a “romantic” Bach, but it is certainly imbued with a sonic beauty, a nobility of timbre that makes the Kantor’s music flow with a heightened sense of purity, a shining crystal that shines from the first to the last note, as can be seen from how he tackles the Partita n. 2. Furthermore, the ability to grace the rhythmic progression of the Concerto Italiano, playing and introducing subtle nuances of timbre with the precise aim of highlighting the melodic (and therefore Italian) side of the work, almost transforming it into an operatic aria, that is, exalting its “cantabilità”, without considering how the Bavarian pianist manages to convey the veins of clear Venetian origin that run through the entire marvelous Andante, without the expressive tension decaying into mere and inappropriate sentimentality. On the contrary, in the Chromatic Fantasy Schliessmann aims, and succeeds, to bring out the brilliant harmonic dimension of the piece through an expressive clarity that never loses the drama of the piano gesture, involving the listener in this continuous and exhilarating ascent, in which the melodic development is the climbing stick.

A necessary premise must be made on the piece by Mendelssohn, the Variations sérieuses op. 54; composed in 1842, which since their appearance were considered one of the most virtuosic works in the piano literature of the time, capable of masterfully displaying the range of supreme piano technique through the process of variation. This is because each variation, in op. 54, is based on the other and develops from the harmonic and melodic energies of the previous variation, a sort of brilliant anticipation of what will be the so-called “development variation” developed by Arnold Schönberg. The title of the Mendelssohnian page itself, quite unusual at the time, should be understood and interpreted as a precise reaction by the Hamburg composer towards an acquired and consolidated musical practice of his time, one that imposed, in a certain sense, the creation of Variations brillantes, that is to say purely virtuosic fantasies on fashionable themes, often taken from operatic arias. On the contrary, with his op. 54, Mendelssohn presented a work that on the one hand seems oriented towards Beethoven’s Variations in C minor and, on the other, capable of anticipating Brahms’s subsequent style of virtuosic variation, in particular the Paganini Variations.

In his reading of this piano masterpiece from the mid-nineteenth century, Schliessmann not only demonstrates his perfect mastery of the keyboard, shaping the sound material imbued with astonishing technical difficulty, but also manages to express its moving musicality; his interpretative ability lies precisely in this: returning to the benefit of the listener those expressive tensions, in the alternation and development between slow and fast variations, which permeate the entire architectural arch of the work. Ultimately, the Bavarian pianist decodes the structure, making it accessible through a heartfelt exploratory alternation of the keyboard, bringing to the surface the shadows and lights that distinguish these variations.

On the second disc, Schliessmann further focuses his concert journey on harmonic development, inevitably arriving at Robert Schumann, whose work is represented here by the Fantasia in C major, Op. 17, together with the two encores, namely the twelfth piece of Carnaval, Op. 9, entitled Chopin, and the third of the eight Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, namely Warum?, and at Fryderyk Chopin with the Waltz in C sharp minor, Op. 64 no. 2. As for the composer from Zwickau, the Bavarian performer rightly points out how Schumann’s music represents a fixed point for two distinct reasons: the first is that his compositional inventiveness took him well beyond the harmonic progressions known up to his time, while the second is given by the fact that, in the wake of the Mendelssohnian Bach Renaissance, Schumann saw in the fugues and canons of the composers of the past a romantic principle. From this, he considered counterpoint, with its phantasmagorical interweaving of voices, a sort of correspondence between the mysterious relations between external phenomena and the human soul, between the transcendent and the immanent principle, trying, at the same time, to express this correspondence in complex musical terms, concentrating them above all on the keyboard of his beloved piano.

Precisely because of this search for sound application, capable of rendering the contest between external and internal forces at its best, Schumann had to face a not indifferent problem, that linked to the fact of presenting an adequate musical and intellectual substance within a large-scale piano form, that is, capable of hosting a complex sound material both in the harmonic and melodic sphere; and there is no doubt that this operation found its best result in the Fantasia op.17, which is rightly considered his most daring and ambitious piano work, in which the brilliant German composer poured all those romantic instances of Germanic imprint already outlined previously through the literary and poetic contribution given by authors such as Schlegel, Novalis, Eichendorff and Jean Paul.

In restoring it in concert, Burkard Schliessmann does not let himself be carried away, especially in the celebrated opening movement, by the enthusiasm generated and offered by the musical writing, but presents it in a fragmented, distilled way, investing it with the due mutations and psychological peculiarities, shaping with due attention the changing agogic, in a perennial symbolic balance between titanism and victimism. Triumph of a sentimentalism that already prefigures, as the Bavarian interpreter himself rightly notes in the accompanying notes, the figure of Wagner’s Tristan; hence a consequent and unavoidable problematicity given by the harmonic material that fully anticipates that dissonant sedimentation that will be fertile humus for Richard Wagner. And Schliessmann is equally convincing when he unravels the second movement in which the young Schumann introduces the visionary lesson of the last piano Beethoven, crafting harmonic daring capable of touching on timbric schizophrenia, bold jolts of modernity that only the passing of time allowed us to appreciate and admire rightly.

To conclude the Schumann chapter linked to this double SACD, as an encore the Bavarian interpreter has chosen two pieces capable of exalting the beauty, the aesthetic quality of his piano touch; so both Chopin and Warum? they transform into two diamonds that shine with a timbric light that Schliessmann knows how to dose as needed and that confirm that ultimately this pianist, like the great Walter Gieseking, is so little “Germanic” in terms of belonging to a piano school, making sure that the so-called “analytical” dimension in tackling a specific author can always be combined with a due patina of timbre, capable of giving beauty and feeling. This is perfectly demonstrated by his reading of Chopin’s Waltz, which strikes with its “sobish” phrasing, almost as if the Bavarian pianist had wanted, more than anything else, to bring out the emotional dimension that lies behind its formal purity. Therefore, a timbric research that behind the aesthetic aspect is not an end in itself, but becomes a tool to delve deeper, to dig, to reach the ultimate heart, that is, the pulsating element, the secret engine that makes everything move.

The live sound recording was done by Matteo Costa, who wanted to highlight both the instrument itself and the spatial dimension in which it was located. The starting point to obtain everything is given by the dynamics, which even if it does not strike for its energy, is however noted for its cleanliness and for a reassuring naturalness. Another parameter that is to be appreciated is that relating to the sound stage, which sees the Fazioli used by Schliessmann reconstructed at a due depth, so as to be able to also represent the spatial volume that is found around it. A lot of depth but, at the same time, also a lot of finesse in the focus of the piano, capable of expressing and radiating a sound that materializes in the surrounding space, a sound that is not lost at the same time that it invades both in terms of width and height. The German interpreter’s pianistic perlage is expertly re-proposed thanks to the effectiveness of the tonal balance, always perfectly discernible in the separation offered by the medium-low register of the keyboard and the high one, as well as the detail, although, as already explained, the piano is positioned at a notable depth, it does not appear to be deficient in terms of materiality and three-dimensionality.

In 47:4, I reviewed a Divine Art set (25755) from Burkard Schliessmann, performing a mix of works by composers near and dear to him: Bach, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. At the time, I was not aware that a new three-disc set from Schliessmann was in the offing, one devoted exclusively to Schumann. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, for Schliessmann’s love of Schumann’s music has been a lifelong one that runs deep.

Since the previously cited set already included selections by Schumann, my first order of business was to determine if there were any duplications between the two releases. The short answer is a qualified “yes.” Both the earlier album and the new one at hand contain the complete Fantasie in C, op. 17, which is generally regarded as one of, if not the, most important and technically challenging of the composer’s works for solo piano. They are not, however, the same performance. The earlier recording was captured “live” in March of 2023, while the present recording, as attested to by Schliessmann in his album note, is a studio production made five months later in August of 2023.

There is also one other minor overlap in programming, but it doesn’t really count because it’s just an excerpt, an outtake if you will, from a much larger work. In the “live” recording, Schliessmann treated us to what amounted to an “encore” with the inclusion of the third number, “Warum?” from the composer’s Fantasiestücke, op. 12. Here he gives us the Fantasiestücke in full.

True to its title, Robert Schumann Fantasies, the new set under review, addresses itself to the composer’s catalog of “fantasy” and related-type pieces. So, I suppose the place to start is with a definition of the genre or typology. Britannica.com succinctly defines a musical fantasy—with all of its linguistic variants based on country of origin and musical period—as “a composition free in form and inspiration, usually for an instrumental soloist.” Not very helpful, as that could apply to almost anything. By that definition, Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun could be a fantasy.

Wikipedia refines it a bit further for us, stating that a “fantasy is a musical composition with roots in improvisation, and that like the impromptu, it seldom follows the textbook rules of any strict musical form.”

The fantasy, as practiced by Schumann and other 19th-century composers, is a construct of the Romantic period, but conceptually and contextually the language of musical fantasy extends back to the late 16th- and early 17th centuries, manifesting itself in the organ and keyboard works of Sweelinck and Frescobaldi, and a bit later in the fantasias of Bach.

The difference between those fantasies and the ones we find in Schumann and the musical Romantic in general is that the later period examples are often, if not invariably, associated with descriptive imagery, poetic verse, and/or story-telling. In other words, the 19th-century fantasy is a subset of program music. For Bach, a fantasia was about the improvisatory style of the music, its textural contrasts, surprising harmonies and progressions, and displays of technical virtuosity. It’s doubtful that Bach had any extra-musical motives in mind.

So, let’s pursue the model of the Romantic fantasy stated above and see if it applies—or doesn’t—to some or all of Schumann’s works in Schliesssmann’s collection.

In Kreisleriana, op. 16—composed originally in 1838 and revised in 1850—Schumann asks the listener to imagine in the eight numbers that make up the piece, the deteriorating sanity of the musical genius, Johannes Kreisler, the fictional Kapellmeister invented by the early Romantic author, E. T. A. Hoffmann. Did Schumann foresee his own descent into madness when he wrote the piece? That’s a question for another day. Here we’re confronted with an early example of Schumann’s dueling personalities, as expressed by the music’s sudden and violent swings between storm and calm, fear and euphoria. We meet these characters again in other of Schumann’s works in the guise of the composer’s ego and alter-ego, Florestan and Eusebius.

Can Kreisleriana be listened to as abstract music, without prior knowledge of Hoffmann’s creation of the imaginary musical genius who loses his marbles? Probably, because music does not communicate to us on a higher cognitive level. Its means of communication is more primitive and more powerful, going directly to the “lizard” part of the brain that holds sway over our emotional responses.

But the point here is what Kreisleriana meant to Schumann and what he hoped it would mean to us. It’s music about love, passionate and manic. The wild mood swings in the piece mirror the composer’s daydreaming about finally being with his beloved Clara and his fits of pique over her father trying to keep his daughter and her young suitor apart.

Fantasiestücke, op. 12, preceded Kreisleriana, but only by a matter of a few months. Composed in 1837, it too originally drew inspiration from a short story by E. T. A. Hoffmann that appeared in the same collection of the author’s novellas in which Kreisleriana was published.

Like its Kreisleriana companion, Schumann’s op. 12—with the musical content and contrasts of its eight numbers and the poetic titles he gave them—also expresses his fever fantasies about Clara and his impatience at not being with her. The layout, however, of op. 12 is a bit different. The eight pieces are divided into two books of four numbers each. Schumann omitted a planned ninth piece, originally intended for the Fantasiestücke, from the final draft. It’s untitled and wasn’t published until 1935, when it was logged in the composer’s catalog as RSW:op12:Anh (H/K WoO 28).

Schliessmann does not play the orphaned piece, but he does do something interesting. At the end of disc two, he repeats the first number of op. 12, Des Abends. The pianist explains in a paragraph of the album note that “the recording features two different interpretations of some works, such as the Arabeske and Des Abends from the Fantasiestücke, op.12, by exchanging the keyboards. This demonstrated the influence of the instrument and acoustics on interpretation. The second SACD includes a unique rendition of Des Abends, creating a transition to the darkness of the Nachtstücke, op. 23, introducing the late pieces by Schumann.”

Stepping back another year to 1836, we come to the Fantasie in C, op. 17, the most ambitious and largest in scope of the composer’s clutch of early fantasy works for solo piano. This is regarded, and arguably so, as Schumann’s greatest work for the instrument. As works of this genre go, however, it seems to have lost its original motivation as yet another expression of the composer’s loins longing for Clara when work on the composition became entangled in a project to raise funds for a memorial statue of Beethoven to be erected in Bonn. Schumann’s contribution to the enterprise would be the money to come from the first 100 copies of the Fantasie sold.

But it didn’t work out quite as planned. Schumann’s Fantasie was so...well...fantastical and so difficult that no publisher it was offered to would touch it. Schumann finally dedicated the finished work to Liszt, Breitkopf & Härtel took a risk on it, and the rest is history. As noted earlier, this is the one work duplicated in full between Schliessmann’s earlier “live” recording and this one, so, further on, it will be interesting to compare the two performances.

Now, Kreisleriana, the Fantasiestücke, and the Fantasie in C are three of the “biggies” among Schumann’s early fantasy-type works. Schliessmann of course, does not include all of the composer’s works in the genre. Missing from this compilation are works as such Carnaval (1834–35), Kinderszenen (1838), Novelletten (1838), Faschingsschwank aus Wien (1839), and Waldszenen (1848–49), to name five. It all goes back, of course, to how one defines or categorizes “fantasy.” However, there are other works to choose from, some not as often heard, and from among them, the pianist gives us Arabeske, op. 18 (1839), Nachtstücke, op. 23 (1839), 3 Fantasy Pieces, op. 111 (1851), and Gesänge der Frühe, op. 133 (1853).

In the category of 19th century fantasy, and especially in the works of Schumann, lines blur. “Fantasy” encompasses and is encompassed by a number of related genres: character pieces, tone paintings, mood enhancers, and even compositions with no extra-musical intent, designed solely for the purpose of virtuosic display and technical one-upmanship. An example of the latter is Schumann’s Toccata in C, op. 7 (1830, revised 1833), still regarded to this day as “one of the most ferociously difficult pieces in the piano repertoire” [Richard E. Rodda].

As noted earlier, there is a duplication between the earlier “live” recording version of the Fantasie in C, op. 17, and this new studio recording of the piece. In execution, interpretation, and timings, Schliessmann’s readings of the first two movements are uncannily similar. Only in the concluding movement, does one hear a significant variance. Here the pianist is more mindful of Schumann’s langsam getragen (borne more slowly).

Live version:  12:45   8:09     8:18

New version:  12:50   8:11     9:03

There is, however, another difference which, to my ear, seems to cast a more nuanced textural and coloristic effect on the music in the new performance, one which goes beyond the more elaborate recording setup employed for the studio recording. That difference, I think, relates to the instruments used. For the earlier “live” performance, Schliessmann played a Fazioli F278 concert grand. For the current studio performance, he played a Steinway D274 concert grand. In past reviews, I’ve been very impressed by the sound of Fazioli pianos, but in this case, it’s the Steinway that seems to lend greater clarity or precision to Schumann’s unique keyboard manner and to give stronger expression to his flights of fantasy.

Mentioned earlier, too, was that for the Arabeske and the repeat of Des Abends from the Fantasiestücke, Burkard exchanges keyboards. On first reading that, I thought it an odd way to say that he switched to a different piano. But a deeper dive into the album notes revealed the reason that the word “keyboards” was used here. The keyboards are two but the piano is one, having been fitted with a second keyboard, much like a two-manual harpsichord I imagine. I quote from the note: “There were two different keyboards in use, different in voicing and intonation, provided by a flying case.”

The recording itself, it should be noted, is very high-tech, above and beyond most high-tech, state-of-the-art SACD recordings. Fourteen microphones were employed to capture Schliessmann in Dolby Atmos, “a revolutionary spatial audio technology for the most immersive sound experience.”

Burkard’s pianism is, as always, a thing of beauty to behold, at once limpid and limned, while always equally as constant in attention to the demands and details of the score as to the emotions and expressive gestures the written notes imply. The fusion of technical mastery and musical insight to this degree combine to produce artistry of the highest caliber.

In my experience, Burkard Schliessmann’s Schumann may be equaled by two or three pianists past—Richter, Horowitz, and especially Arrau—but he is not surpassed by any of them.

Robert Schumann, in his all too short and troubled life, managed to compose a significant amount of truly great piano music. Most of it is comprised of collections of short pieces. Some of these are thematically related, others were composed together, and nearly all had either titles or creative tempo markings. A good example of his creative process can be found in a letter to Clara, where he wrote “I've finished another whole notebook of new pieces. I intend to call it Kreisleriana. You and one of your ideas play the main role in it.” Subtitled Fantasien für Piano-Forte, they serve as the opening work in this huge program from Burkard Schliessmann. He gives the program a simple title of Fantasies and includes most every major opus by Schumann that uses or is related to the term “Fantasy”. They were written in two timeframes: the early works 1836-39 and later ones from 1851-53.

All of these works here require a quite advanced level of pianism. Schumann started his musical life with the goal of becoming a virtuoso and his early pieces especially are quite difficult. Due to problems with his hand, he abandoned his own concert career and seemed quite satisfied that Clara Wieck would champion his music and was likely a better pianist, even before they got married in 1840. She would outlive him by 40 years and edited, published and frequently performed his entire oeuvre. She is probably most responsible for his music being appreciated today as a foundation of piano repertoire.

  Most of the music here has been an integral part of Schliessmann’s repertoire for the better part of his career and he has recorded a few pieces like Kreisleriana and the Fantaisie before. Clearly he has much more to say about Schumann. He even gives us two different performances of the Arabeske and a second one of Des Abends, the first of the Op. 12 Fantasiestücke. As with his other recordings, Schliessmann contributes an extensive, thought-provoking essay. He makes considerable references to poetry and Schumann’s songs as they relate to his piano music, as well as each of the specific pieces here.

  Without hesitation I recommend this recording, not only for those who value great and probing performances of Romantic piano music, but also for anyone with a love for great music from any era or instrumentation. The Fantasie, Op. 17 is the largest work on the program and arguably Schumann’s greatest piano piece. Its difficulties are renowned, especially the middle movement. This performance is, in general, more lyrical and passionate than most. There is no sense of showing off in the big contrary motion leaps, but of shaping and phrasing the top melody over a firm bass line. A high point of the 3CDs is the bass line in the final movement. I have never heard it as both the foundation and a beautiful melodic line. It is a revelation. There are many, many moments all through these pieces that repay careful listenings. This will certainly be my reference recording for all of the work here.

 Divine Arts gives us their expected state of the art recording – SACD in customary excellent recorded piano sound. Producer Julian Schwenkner and engineer Jupp Wegner worked with Schliessmann, employing 14 microphones for a Dolby Atmos experience. Every nuance of the performances is captured with a clarity that could only be matched by being present in the recording studio.

Ever the seeker, pianist Burkard Schliessmann revisits the magical, mystical world of Robert Schumann in this latest release. Captured in superlative sound (and in Dolby Atmos via 14 microphones at Teldex Studios, Berlin), his Steinway instrument is caught magnificently by producer Julian Schwenkner and engineer Jupp Wegner. A pianist in the tradition of the greats, Schliessmann mixes a real appreciation and respect for tradition before him with exemplary insight into Schumann’s music, all wrapped in the latest technology. He used a piano (Steinway D-612236) with two keyboards, each with complete mechanics and hammers. One was brighter sounding, one darker.

Here, Schliessmann presents an exploration of the more phantasmagoric aspect of Schumann’s output. His playing is characterized by complete linear clarity married to a 360-degree harmonic understanding (from immediate detail through to large-scale structure). So it is that Schliessmann can characterise each and every element of Kreisleriana. Many of the traits identified by Peter J. Rabinowitz in his review of Schliessmann’s MSR Kreisleriana (Fanfare 34:3) are present here: crystalline clarity, and a fierce intellectualism combined with the most refined expression. Listen to Schliessmann’s “Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch” (track 2). The legato is perfect, but so is the definition of each note of the upper line, while each element of the inner voices and bass is itself heard as a perfectly judged independent entity heard in heavenly accord. Schumann’s achievements here are magnificent; and so is Schliessmann’s realization.

Schliessmann’s Schumann is far from that of an eager young pup; “Intermezzo I” of Kreisleriana is impulsive yet superbly articulated. The music flows. At times one hears references to orchestral sounds: sequences of intervals that might imply a pair of horns, for example, all invoked the myriad colors at Schliessmann’s disposal. This, coupled with his understanding of process is what makes this performance. There are inevitable points of contact with the earlier MSR recording, but this is deeper; plus, the Divine Art sound is markedly superior. Audophiles will doubtless concentrate on the sonic excellence, therefore, but musicians can revel in the far deeper rewards offered by Schliessmann. He takes risks in the sixth movement, allowing the music to ever so slowly unfurl, and how they pay off. This is Schumann at his most profound. Schliessmann is just as exciting in the seventh movement (“Sehr Rasch”) as in the earlier MSR, but his articulation is clearer (aided of course by that recording: one can really hear the difference in this movement particularly). The finale is, in line with the present release’s core ethos, properly fantastical, the displaced bass creepily stalkerish to the jittery upper line. How gloriously rich, to, the bass Fine though the MSR’s finale was, here on Divine Art, Schliessmann truly honors the fantastical, adding a hint of grotesquerie.

I reviewed a previous Fantasie by Schliessmann as recently as Fanfare 45:4 (May/June 2022: At the Heart of the Piano). There, the Fantasie was heard in the context of Liszt’s B-Minor Sonata, so comparisons between the works were apt. Here, it is heard within Schumann’s universe only, and so one tends to concentrate on the composer alone. With an expert ear (and foot) for pedalling, Schliessmann reveals both inner lines and significant bass shifts with total confidence and zero unnecessary blurring. In this most recent version, power meets a core of iron. Schliessmann is unafraid of eschewing the sustaining pedal where others cling as if drowning pianists to a piece of flotsam, and the results are often revelatory. The supremely analytical recording does document the odd pianist’s sniff, but that’s part of the feel of performance here. Far more impressive is the almost organ-like sound at times; the processional of the second movement “Mäßig” is full of majesty, as if Schliessmann relates  a fairy tale. Narration is a key aspect to Schumann’s output (whether tethered to a specific premise or not), and Schliessmann is a natural story-teller. This is a marriage made in heaven. In the work’s final panel, the pianist takes more time than previously, allowing the lines to uncurl, supported by a glorious legato. With local melody and crepuscular harmony, the effect is truly magical; and how the piano’s upper register sparkles like starlight.

The second disc opens with Schumann’s Arabeske, a piece that encapsulates in miniature all that makes Schumann’s piano music special: the intimacy, the sense of rightness, the deft counterpoint. Schliessmann presents it delicately, as the Fantaisie’s whispered after-thought. It is in the realm of the miniature and the shorter movements that Schumann shines, of course, and such is then case here, each movement of op. 12 expertly imagined by Schliessmann. The second, “Aufschwung” certainly has power, but again the ear is led to felicities of counterpoint and inter-voice dialog. Rubao is often a problem in “Warum?,” and yet here it is as natural as can me. It was “Warum?” that appeared on Schliessmann’s Live & Encores release (Fanfare 47:4) which leads me to speculate Schliessmann has a soft spot for this movement. It certainly sounds like it: the “zart” (tender) element is certainly there, and how that contrasts with “Grillen,” which here sounds more experimental than any other performance i know, pointing way forward to the late works. The second book of op. 12 begins with a stormy “In der Nacht,”; a controlled tempest of the heart perhaps, with sudden crescendos implying stabs of emotion. There are risks galore here, and they all pay off. Contrasts in “Fabel” are marked, more so than any other performance I know, and of course that juxtaposition is so perfect for Schumann. The trickiest movement in. a technical sense is surely “Traumes Wirren,” and Schliessmann creates some wonderful textural contrasts (between pedalled and clean sonorities). The final “Ende vom Lied” exudes  contained nobility.

There are two performances of the Arabeske and of “Des Abends” from Fantasiestücke, op. 12, one on each keyboard. The second Arabeske is warmer, its lyrical, contrasting sections perhaps more inviting. The first “Des Abends” is part of the complete set and is beautifully voiced, pure as spring water. The second again inevitably mellower; but what is interesting his how Schliessmann in the second instance finds just as much clarity of melody as with the first. Both shine, perhaps the first like a white pearl and the second like its black counterpart.

For all of the interpretative and technical victories of the first two discs, it is the final one that is really special, and truly elevates this set above the rest. Schliessmann performs the op. 23 Nachtstücke with an impeccable sense of rightness. Schumann exhibits a real sense of exploration in his op. 23. These four E. T. A. Hoffmann-inspired movements exhibit a whole world, from caprice to dream, all elevated not just by Schliessmann’s playing but by the tremendous presence of the recording (try the richness of the bass at the opening of the third). The flowing final panel stands in high contrast to the Urschrei that opens the first of the op. 111 Fantasiestücke. Penned in 1851, this late set of pieces was written just a few short months after the composer's appointment at Düsseldorf. Schliessmann gives a tremendous performance of all three, muscular in the first, almost hymnic in the second, a prayer-like meditation with a fearless exploration of the darker crannies of the psyche, casting a shadow over the final ”Kräftig und sehr markiert”.

Finally, Schumann’s criminally neglected Gesänge der Frühe, the last work Schumann himself prepared for publication.  In his notes, Schliessmann posits a link between this piece and Hölderlin's Diotima; either way, his performance is extraordinary, eclipsing my previous top recommendation (Piotr Anderszewski on Erato). It is Schliessmann who captures the elusive and entirely individual world of late Schumann to perfection. If I have one wish for this set, it is that Schliessmann’s performance brings Schumann’s op. 133 to a wider public. There is a sort of satisfying symmetry to the indication of the fifth and final movement, “Im Anfang ruhiges” (op. 133/1 is marked, “Im ruhiges Tempo”). Under Schliessmann’s fingers, the music seems to strive for an unknown other, and yet the search emanates from a heart at peace. A truly satisfying reading.

In his booklet notes, Schliessmann posits that the key to understanding Schumann's phatasmagoria is via his vocal music, and Schliessmann specifically cites the composer’s setting of Heine in the op. 24  Liederkreis, (No. 3, “Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen”; late, he writes on the relationship between Eichendorff and Schumann (via “Zwielicht” from the op. 29 Liederkreis). The booklet indeed makes for fascinating reading, but it is the music itself that matters. Burkard Schliessmann, in his finest offering yet, offers a homage to Schumann for the ages.

Within five months of the release of his live album Live & Encores, which was also released on the Divine Art label, Burkard Schliessmann presents Robert Schumann: Fantasies, an extensive recording of Schumann’s Phantasmagoria for piano. On three SACDs there are recordings of the Fantasy Pieces op. 12, the Kreisleriana op. 16, the Fantasy in C major op. 17, the Arabesque op. 18, the Night Pieces op. 23 as well as the Three Fantasy Pieces op. 111 and the Songs the early op. 133.

It is not only the proximity of the releases of the two albums that gives them the character of a double pack, but also the fact that both albums contain Schumann’s Fantasy in C major and the third number of the Fantasy Pieces op. 12, “Why?” include. Live & Encores and Fantasies very impressively show Burkard Schliessmann’s playing in completely different situations: Live & Encores was recorded live in front of an audience in the Fazioli concert hall in Milan on three consecutive evenings in April 2023, so that only three takes were required for the final editing for each piece templates. Here Schliessmann plays a Fazioli F278. Fantasies, on the other hand, was recorded in Berlin’s teldex studios from the end of August to the beginning of September 2023. Here Schliessmann plays a D-274 from Steinway & Sons and uses two different tuners. While Live & Encores conveys the “immediate and spontaneous impression” (according to Burkard Schliessmann in an email to the author) of the music in the live situation, the feeling of the artist communicating with the audience and the mutual exchange of tension can be experienced the situation in the studio is different. Under the right conditions, “the matter can be brought to the heart of the matter” (Schliessmann). In addition to the acoustic conditions of the studio, this also includes the instrument, the technical equipment and the collaboration with the producer.

In the present case, all conditions come together optimally. Burkard Schliessmann’s interpretive flair, his intellectual penetration of Schumann’s musical text and his perfect technique come into their own in the acoustic conditions of the studio and in the hands of his producer Julian Schwenkner. The total of fourteen microphones that capture Schliessmann’s playing on the excellent Steinway & Sons in Dolby Atmos ensure a Schumann recording that is nothing more and nothing less than a milestone.

Robert Schumann’s poetic phantasmagoria place the highest intellectual, interpretative and technical demands on the pianist. It is always worth remembering the connections between poetry, fantasy and reality in Schumann’s world of thought. Reading Schliessmann’s essay “Robert Schumann’s Phantasmagoria”, which forms the core of the album’s detailed liner notes, is highly recommended. It says that in literature, authors such as Gérard de Nerval, Hölderlin and Charles Lamb tried to “place a new form of understanding in the place of logical thinking, rationalism”. Schumann is the “representative of this school in music” and the attentive listener will feel “this illogical, irrational, almost crazy aspect” of Schumann’s music.

But this is only one side of Schumann’s piano music. The other is structural, architectural. Elsewhere in the liner notes, Burkard Schliessmann highlights the importance for Schumann of the polyphonic music of older masters, in which Schumann recognized a romantic principle, namely the expression of the “mysterious relationships between souls and things” in the interweaving of voices in contrapuntal music. Burkard Schliessmann succeeds in making both audible and tangible – the poetic, mysterious and fantastic aspects as well as the formal, structural aspects – in an exemplary manner in this recording.

It begins with the Kreisleriana, eight movements that Schumann wrote within a few days in 1838, in a state of inner turmoil and depressive moods. The pieces were inspired by E. T. A. Hoffmann’s bizarre Kapellmeister character Johannes Kreisler, who ends up in madness. Already in the first movement “Extremely moved”, a true “Florestan”, the inner turbulence becomes noticeable and here one of the great strengths of Schliessmann’s interpretation becomes apparent, namely the choice of tempo. In faster movements, Schliessmann tends to use comparatively slightly slower tempos, without the pieces losing any of their tension. On the contrary: through sound coloring and phrasing, Burkard Schliessmann really brings out the urgent Florestan character of the first movement. The same can be seen in other pieces on the album, for example “Aufschwung” and “In der Nacht” from the Fantasy Piecesop. 12. With Schumann, virtuosity never becomes an end in itself and Schliessmann faithfully follows this maxim (in contrast to other of his colleagues). Rather, virtuosity (in the sense of technical perfection) in Schliessmann’s interpretation of Schumann is always in the service of poetry – and with such lightness and transparency that the sometimes enormous technical difficulties of Schumann’s piano movements, especially in the Kreisleriana, are not seen as such noticed.

The lyrical Eusebius sentences also have a poetic depth that is rarely heard. Schliessmann’s performance of the long second movement of the Kreisleriana impresses with perfectly controlled legato playing, which always emphasizes the complexity of polyphony vocally and plastically. The urgent passages appear soft and mysterious, everything develops organically, everything is in flow.

The studio recording of Fantasy in C major available on Fantasies invites comparison with the live recording on Live & Encores. It is particularly noticeable in the third movement that Schliessmann deliberately chose a slower tempo in the studio recording. While on Live & Encores the movement has a playing time of 8:18, on Fantasies he plays it in 9:03. Here it becomes clear how different situations – live and studio – affect the interpretation. Here a greater flow, there a more spherical state. However, both are absolutely coherent and it is worthwhile to look at Schumann’s Fantasy in C major from both aspects.

The following Arabesque op. 18 is recorded twice on Fantasies. It comes across as slightly dance-like at the end of the first SACD. Schliessmann plays its delicate ramifications with a rarely found wealth of nuances and ends with an almost impressionistic tone that no longer seems to be of this world. The second version on Disc B, Track 9 is played with the second, softer intonated mechanics. The tone is middle and gentler, the character is more lyrical.

“Des Abends”, the first number of the Fantasy Pieces op. 12, appears delicate and transparent in its polyphony. These eight miniatures show Schumann’s strength in telling perfect stories in a small space, which in Burkard Schliessmann’s hands achieve a rarely heard poetic quality . The fifth number, “In the Night” (incidentally Schumann’s favorite piece from the work) does not get its passionate quality from the tempo alone. What other pianists unfortunately regurgitate at will, Schliessmann brings to life in an exciting but always transparent manner in the right proportion to the vocal middle section and thus achieves a narrative effect that is reminiscent of the legend of Hero and Leander, which Schumann subsequently recognized in this piece. is completely fair. The humorous “Crickets” are also poetically transcended and while other interpreters tend to make “Traumes Wirren” a superficial circus act, with Schliessmann every note comes to life and leads into the depths of the subconscious that plays tricks on us. Like the arabesque, the final second version of “Des Abends” on disc B is also played with the softer intonated mechanics. Detached from the context of the cycle of fantasy pieces op. 12, this version focuses more on timbres and once again Schliessmann creates an almost impressionistic quality here.

At the same time, the two tracks played with the soft intonated second mechanics (Arabesque and “Des Abends”) are also a sound preparation for the Nachtstück op. 23, which opens the third SACD of the album. Also in the first and fourth numbers of the cycle created in 1839, the title of which corresponds to the stories of the same name by E.T.A. Borrowed from Hoffmann’s, the softer hammer heads are used, which tonally suits the dark, constantly halting funeral march that opens the cycle. The movement appears gentle and introverted, but still dark, and almost has a hypnotic effect. Schliessmann works out the polyphonic structures in the second movement with the utmost perfection in touch, the capricious moments of the third movement impress with their coloring, while the final fourth piece, in which the softer intonated hammer heads are used again, sounds like it comes from another sphere.

The Three Fantasy Pieces op. 111 from Schumann’s time as music director in Düsseldorf seem like a return to his phantasmagoria for piano, which were written between 1837 and 1839 – a generally criminally neglected phase of his work in which Schumann wrote some of his greatest works. Schliessmann’s performance takes the listener through all regions of feeling, strong and passionate at the beginning, vocally in the second movement and with the right amount of energy, wonderfully developed contrasts in the middle section and finely structured arabesques at the end in the third movement.

The album concludes with the songs from the Frühe op. 133, which are rarely played due to their complexity and difficult accessibility and which Robert Schumann offered to the publisher F. W. Arnold shortly before he threw himself into the Rhine in February 1854. In his letter to Arnold, Schumann described the five pieces dedicated to the poet Bettina von Arnim as music “that describe the sensations as the morning approaches, but more as an expression of emotion than as painting.” (quoted from the liner notes). Schliessmann’s performance hits exactly this note. Despite the complexity of the composition, Schliessmann’s interpretation still appears transparent; Every note, every phrase is filled with meaning, explored intellectually and emotionally in depth and made tangible. Both for the chorale at the beginning and for the final piece, the second mechanism with the softer hammer heads is used again and creates a central, gentle tone. This work seems like an apotheosis of Schumann’s fantastically poetic piano work and forms the perfect, almost transcendent conclusion to this great album.

With Robert Schumann: Fantasies, Burkard Schliessmann has opened up new horizons for Schumann interpretation. His performances combine the intellect necessary to understand Schumann’s music, supreme poetry and just the right instinct for timbre, agogics and tempo. In the future, no listener and especially no artist will be able to ignore these recordings. Schliessmann puts one reference recording after another on this album, which also meets the highest standards in terms of sound, presentation and information content.

It becomes obvious from pianist Burkard Schliessmann’s extensive liner notes and the nature of his selections that he regards Robert Schumann as a major Romantic figure; but more, Schumann emerges as a visionary, inspired purveyor of a literary-musical nexus that embraces a huge fund of cultural invention. Schliessmann addresses the mystical element in Schumann’s idiosyncratic synthesis of music and literature, which in a manner indebted to Schubert and Beethoven, explores aspects of Nature, mortality, and love, moving freely and passionately in decisive gestures. Without invoking the names of poets Coleridge and Poe, nor the contemporary musician Berlioz, Schliessmann raises the deliberate ambiguities, harmonic and structural, in Schumann’s oeuvre that invoke the darker hues of imaginative expression.  The lure of the irrational, which Schliessmann cites in Nerval, Lamb, and Hölderlin, finds parallels in Poe’s “imp of the perverse” and in Coleridge’s “esemplastic” notion of the Imagination, capable of the same, infinite varieties of creation attributed to God. Schliessmann’s realizations of the Schumann scores, therefore, bear the agogic and polyphonic textures that invoke menace and uncertainty, even while an otherwise placid surface presents itself, as in the familiar Arabeske in C. Like his contemporaries Liszt and Chopin, and the later Wagner, Schumann will dwell in sudden ecstasies of emotion, heavenly and infernal, as his volatile, often Manichéan, temperament permits.

The allure of what might be termed “divine madness” begins with Schumann’s eight-section Op. 16 Kreisleriana of 1838, based on his reading of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The opening flourish, doubtless a series of whirling violin figures to invoke the devilry in Kreisler or that of Paganini, invokes what Schliessmann conceives as “twilight” gestures meant to realize a moral miasma. Recall the “disastrous twilight” Milton employs in his early depiction of the fallen Lucifer. The contradictions Schumann embraces involve an objective series centered in B-flat and the extreme, abstract subjectivity or innigkeit, of self-aggrandizement, the basis of most of Scriabin. Already in the Intermezzo appear those sudden rushes of emotion that threaten dissolution, except for their polyphony, which exert a yearning for comprehension.

For Schumann, time and space have become measurements of longing. To combat merciless Time, Schumann resorts to Märchen, martial impulses that are the stuff of legend, a mode essential to the Schumann sensibility, especially, Schliessmann’s purposes, in the Op. 17 Fantasie. “In the style of a Legend,” the latter part of the Fantasie’s first movement, provokes us to ask, what or whose legend? The answer must lie in the assertion of selfhood, so we look beyond Florestan both to Wagner and Nietzsche, thinkers who posit the mythos of one’s own being. How else to combat the cold, grievous canter of the death-ride of Kreisleriana’s final section, reminiscent of those Medieval woodcuts that no less inspired the second movement of the Mahler G Major Symphony?  Fantasie in C, in which the secret of the cosmos, of universal harmony, is distilled into a single tone, understood by a receptive, enlightened soul. Dedicated to Liszt and conceived in the shadow of Beethoven, the work alternates huge gestures and tiny, even playful, personal mottos and musical anagrams. The later “Tristan chord” having been subsumed into the mix, the music urges the nexus of love and death, given Schumann’s grievous passion for Clara Wieck. The second movement rages at first, percussive in the manner of Beethoven’s Op. 101 A Major Sonata, the syncopations in martial array an assertion of personal power. The last movement Schliessmann takes at a deliberately slow tempo, paying debts to another sonata quasi fantasia in Beethoven’s “Moonlight.” But how much of the opening sequence belongs to Schubert! The great lyric composer perpetually celebrates and laments the sense of loss, and Schumann’s emergent melody resonates as a sustained hymn in the Schubert mode. The intensity and passion only increase, virtually collapsing into a sustained, then subdued, orison.

Schliessmann steps back in time for Schumann’s 1837 suite after E.T.A. Hoffmann, the eight Fantasiestücke, Op. 12. The programmatic titles offer an opportunity to commune with Schumann on the metaphorical level, since the composer appeals to Nature and the Cosmos for solace and justification. “Des Abends,” which Schliessmann performs twice, presents a drooping, seductive melodic line, captured immortally for my taste by Benno Moiseiwitsch and no less sensitive here in Schliessmann’s rendering. A more strident, hard patina emerges in “Aufschung,” as well it might, as the line soars in a gesture of (Florestan’s) assertiveness. “Warum?” asks an existential question in dialogue, the answer to which may lie in Beethoven’s “It must be!” from Op. 135. A moment of relative mirth in “Grillen” enjoys a songful secondary subject that soon gallops in fairy-tale narrative. But the ensuing “In der Nacht” counters with what suffices as Schumann’s most vehement, Lisztian foray, a rival to many of the more somber Chopin études. The swirling tropes, akin to Poe’s “Descent into the Maelstrom,” find a more agreeable tenor in the penultimate “Traumes Wirren,” a suggestion of Romantic, imaginative intoxication, immortalized in blazing speed by Horowitz, but here rendered in a more staid, controlled ecstasy. “Fabel” begs the question of whose myth evolves before us, and Nietzsche would claim the legend of the defined self. The piece opens quizzically but gathers syncopated speed and confidence, a sense of play, of the “glass bead game,” to paraphrase Hesse. A feeling of farewell opens the finale, Ende vom Lied, at first a stolid march but transforming its cadential tread into a hearty affirmation of conviction in the power of the enchantment of the poetic will.

Schliessmann performs the familiar Arabeske in C of 1839 in two versions, the second a mite brisker than the first. A rondo with two minor key episodes, the piece embodies what I like to call Schumann’s “nostalgia for the dream” of idyllic bliss. That reverie is not without its dark hues and moments of meandering introspection. The recording from Berlin’s Teldex Studios, utilizing the Dolby Atmos process, has done Schliessmann’s keyboard good service.

The innate morbidity in Schumann’s soul informs his 1839 set of Vier Nachtstücke Op. 23, somber testimony to E.T.A. Hoffmann and to the death of a beloved brother, Eduard. A kind of ineluctable tread permeates the first number, followed by a feeling of contrapuntal rebellion in the second. The heroic impulse defines the third, although its syncopes and middle section betray unease. The last of the set proves the most overtly funereal, exerting a kind of kinship with John Donne’s “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.” Schliessmann delivers a forceful tour of these disturbed visions, not so poetic as that of Emil Gilels but eminently thoughtful.

The triptych of 1851, Drei Fantasiestücke Op. 111, has had few acolytes, but among them Grant Johannesen and Shura Cherkassky. Clara Schumann called the three pieces “grave and passionate,” and Schliessmann accords them a solemn dignity. The designation Attacca unites the three mood pieces in terms of flux and melodic fluidity. The middle piece appears as an oasis in the midst of a broil traceable both to Shakespeare via E.T.A. Hoffmann and, possibly, to Schumann’s admiration for the Beethoven Op. 111 Sonata in C Minor.  The last chord of this third, impressive fantasy-march, resonates long after the double bar.

Schliessmann concludes his grand tour of the Schumann ethos with the 1854 Gesänge der Frühe Op. 133, literally “Songs Before Morning.” These are five pieces, of which the third in A major forms a kind of crux or fulcrum, and all betray the manic urge to cyclicism that occupies Schumann’s late style, exemplified in the concertos for cello and violin. The thick textures for the keyboard, often in the four-part counterpoint of Bach and Handel, adds an antique dimension to the affekt. Valedictory bell tones infiltrate the last of the set, countered by lovely, liquid riffs. Come, sweet death – “Komm, süßer Tod, komm selge Ruh” – isn’t that the most universal of all composers, J.S. Bach?

***** Highly recommended, both to read and to audition.

The original version here:

Schliessmann writes, "I feel how each listener in the audience is listening to me, and I feel its warmness, for example, and I give it back to the complete audience. I feel the intensity of hearing, of listening. This is like electricity, and this I give back to the audience." Schliessmann gives his audience here a generous program of pieces that are very close to him. This recording was made on April 3-5, 2023 at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy. Besides these incredible performances we are able to enjoy this program in state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos high-definition audio. The hybrid multichannel SACD is presented as a beautiful two-CD boxed set with a 60-page booklet, but is currently having some minor production problems and should be back in stock soon. In the meantime, I was able to enjoy the program via a download.

There is also a download of the booklet. Schliessmann provides an extensive and well-written booklet essay (about 20 pages each in English, German, and French). It gives the listener a good insight into the tremendous musical mind at work here. Divine Art's production values have been quite impressive in recent years, and never more so than on the Schliessmann releases that have come my way. From the very high-definition audio to the mixing and balance to the booklet design, pictures, and texts, I cannot believe any artist could ever hope for anything more than this label regularly delivers.

Special mention should be made of the various brilliant movements and sections, whether in Bach, Mendelssohn, or Schumann. Schliessmann never loses track of the melodies, and they are always shaped and given sensitive dynamic shading. While these are characteristics we expect in the slower movements, it is a revelation when they are applied to technically demanding, brilliant movements. I cite a few examples here: Bach's Capriccio in the Partita and third movement in the Italian Concerto, Mendelssohn's Variations Nos. 16 and 17, and the second movement of Schumann's Fantasie. A number of young pianists seem to take these movements as fast as possible, probably to show off their technical skills. Not Schliessmann, for he has no technical limitations, but finds and brings out the melodies here and keeps the level of excitement and virtuosity present without being overpowering to the music.

Part of the reason I have enjoyed listening to this exceptional program many times is Schliessmann's playing at any tempo is always rhythmically alive. Bach's Fantasia is full of virtuosic, quick passages that move into some slower chordal sections. There is always a forward rhythmic movement, even when Schliessmann is slowing down for a contrasting section. The slow movement of the Italian Concerto can be uninteresting if taken too slowly, with little sense of the flow of the melody. With Bach's ornamentation in the second half, this presents more rhythmic challenges. I have never heard a better performance of this movement than Schliessmann's on this disc: It is perfect. The long build-up to the climax of the third movement of Schumann's Fantasie, a glorious outpouring of Schumann's love for Clara, is another place where the rhythm must move the piece forward. This performance makes that inevitable moment eagerly anticipated and eminently satisfying as well.

The Bach pieces are a part of Schliessmann's repertoire that he recorded and released before (Divine Art SACD 25751; see the feature article in Fanfare 38:4, Mar/Apr 2015). These fully exploit the resources of the modern grand piano. As the pianist points out, if you are going to play Bach on the piano, use everything it is capable of. His ornamentation is always tasteful and appropriate. He also points out that the current performances are just the most recent in a line of performances going back to his youth. His artistry has matured over all these years, and the performances here are revelatory. Given that his forthcoming Schumann disc was recorded after this one, I anticipate more great and fascinating performances from Schliessmann in the near future.

It is impossible to find words to give this recording a higher recommendation. It has already earned a spot on my Want List for the current year, and I'll continue to listen to it regularly.

In Fanfare's March-April, 2015 issue (38:4), I interviewed Burkard Schliessmann, mainly in connection with his then new SACD Divine Art album of works by J. S. Bach. Among a couple of other items, that disc contained the Partita No. 2, the Italian Concerto, and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, all three of which are duplicated here on this newly released two-disc Divine Art SACD set. I hasten to add, however, that these are not the same performances. It's impossible for them to be since they were recorded as recently as April 3-5, 2023 at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy, on Schliessmann's personally owned Fazioli F278 concert grand.

These works are near and dear to the pianist's heart and are part of his core repertoire, so it's only natural that he would want to go on record with them again. The same may be said of Schumann's Fantasie, which was included in Burkard's three-disc album, only released in September, 2021, but remastered from a much earlier recording that had been previously issued on the Bayer label. The Divine Art three-CD set, titled At the Heart of the Piano, received several glowing reviews in Fanfare 45:3.

As far as I can tell, this is Schliessman's first time on record with Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses and Schumann's Carnaval, complete, though he does give us here the ninth movement of Carnaval, titled "Chopin," as one of his two encore pieces, and then offers a performance of Chopin's Waltz in CT Minor as the second of his encore numbers, both of which he has also recorded previously.

Schliessmann's new set at hand begins with Bach's C-Minor Partita, and I have to admit that the pianist's way with Bach is definitely his own, yet one that I find quite captivating. Take, for example, the manner in which he addresses the shift in tempo, texture, and musical content at the point in the score marked Andante that follows the Grave Adagio introduction to the piece. His left-hand, "walking bass," eighth notes are clearly articulated with a staccato touch, but not nearly with the martelé aggressiveness of, say, Glenn Gould's staccato.

Meanwhile, Schliessman's right hand remains remarkably free to follow the clues and bring out the notes that constitute the melody as it plays hide and seek among the mirrored maze of Bach's contrapuntal crossword puzzle. The melody notes are not necessarily contiguous in all of the running passagework. Somewhere in there is a singable line, because Bach always sings, and he teases the player's fingers to find the song in the line and the listener's ears to hear it. Schliessmann has a keen ear for those notes, and his fingers know how to make the line sing.

Next on the disc is Bach's Italian Concerto, which, being a piece for solo harpsichord, is not a concerto as we normally define the term. Nor, is there anything one can point to that identifies it as Italian. In fact, the original title of the piece was Concerto in the Italian Taste. The Italian Concerto plus the French Overture together comprise Book II of Bach's Clavier-Übung, the shortest of the three books in which the composer published what he considered to be his most important keyboard works.

With due apologies to all pianists, I will say that the Italian Concerto is one of those pieces specifically designed for a two-manual harpsichord that cannot be fully realized as intended on the piano. Bach achieves the concertino-vs.-ripieno "concerto" effect by juxtaposing passages of lighter and softer textures against fuller and louder ones. But he also designates the lighter—i.e., solo or concertino—passages to be played on the second manual, which through the use of different stops can be made to sound like a completely different instrument.

The piano can accomplish the first part of this, differentiating the textures through dynamics and touch, which, I have to say, Schliessmann is very, very good at, but not even he can make us believe we're hearing two different instruments. It's just not in the nature of the beast.

Following the Italian Concerto, Schliessmann gives us what is perhaps Bach's blockbuster, non-organ keyboard work, and likely his most popular, the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. Believed to have been composed between 1717 and 1723, during the composer's time in Köthen, it dates from the period during which Bach was experimenting with various systems of tempered tuning that led to the first book of his Well-Tempered Clavier in 1722. The Chromatic Fantasia and the WTC (I) were written around the same time and possibly even overlap. It's now thought that the fugue was added to the Fantasia at a later date.

In the manner of its virtuosic, seemingly improvisatory style, the Fantasia part of the piece isn't entirely unique. Bach was certainly familiar with the toccatas, ricercars, and fantasias of Frescobaldi and Froberger, many of which exemplified the so-called "fantastic style" (stylus phantasticus), popular as early as the end of the 16th century.

What is likely unique about Bach's Fantasia is that it's thoroughly chromatic, and not just successively but consecutively or serially. In other words, it doesn't simply modulate freely from one key to another, it abuts diminished seventh chords by chromatic half-steps, one immediately after the other, thus sounding all 12 tones of the chromatic scale.

Some may be disappointed that the mathematically-minded Bach didn't come up with a 12-tone subject for the Fugue, but as noted earlier, the Fugue was most likely not composed at the same time as the Fantasia. There have even been suggestions that the Fugue might not be by Bach but by one of his contemporaries, and that it was only later tacked onto the Fantasia when it was finally published.

As can be guessed, the pair together require the utmost in virtuosity and control from the player. The Fantasia is extremely demanding for the duality of its requirements. On the one hand (no pun intended), it engages both hands simultaneously in equal oppositional playing, which requires enormous discipline and concentration; while on the other hand, the player must simultaneously display the virtuosic flair and sense of freedom that convey the impression of a toccata-like improvisational style. And that's just the Fantasia. Add to it the rigorous technique demanded by the Fugue, and you have quite an exhibitionistic tour-de-force. Little wonder that the work was a favorite of Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, and other 19th-century virtuoso pianists, and still attracts keyboard artists and thrills audiences to this day. In Schliessmann, the work has found a modern-day master and magician.

To conclude disc one, the pianist turns to Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses. Over 100 years and an entire historical era, the Classical period, may have intervened between Bach and Mendelssohn, but it was Mendelssohn, more than any other composer that we have to thank for ensuring and enshrining Bach's legacy in music history. Mendelssohn was a tireless advocate for Bach's music and an assiduous student of Bach's counterpoint and methods of composition.

Yet I couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't some deeper connection between the works on the disc by Bach and Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses that led Schliessmann to include this particular Mendelssohn work.

The answer is a partial yes. That the Variations is in D Minor, the same key as the Chromatic Fantasy, is the least and most superficial of the similarities. More significantly, the theme on which the variations is based is highly chromatic. Within its first eight bars, each of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale is sounded at least once. It is no less difficult to write a set of variations on such a theme than it is to write a fugue on Bach's chromatic subject. Both are equally unpromising, yet both motivated their respective composers to produce some very extraordinary music.

Did Mendelssohn feel challenged to see what he could do working in the variations form with a thoroughly chromatic theme? Who can say? What can be said is that Schliessmann brings an expressive beauty to the slower variations and a dramatic intensity to the faster variations that I've rarely heard in this piece. For an example of the former, listen to Variation 14, and for the latter, to Variation 9.

Disc two is considerably shorter, consisting mainly of Schumann's Fantasie in C, op. 17, followed by Chopin's Waltz in CT Minor, the second number in the composer's set of Three Waltzes, op. 64. And finally, the two encore pieces listed in the headnote to this review.

Schumann's Fantasie, as a composition, needs no introduction. It's likely his greatest and most famous work for solo piano, not to mention one of his top contenders for most technically difficult. In fact, on a scale of 1 to 5, pianolibrary.org rates the second movement of it the penultimate entry in its category 5 list, edged out only by the Presto finale of the composer's Piano Sonata No. 2 in G Minor.

Such ratings, of course, are relative. What poses near insurmountable difficulties for one player, another player might find more tractable to his or her technique. If Schliessman is challenged by the piece, you wouldn't know it from listening to him play it. He has reached the plane sought and coveted by all players, which is to surmount all technical obstacles to the point where conscious awareness of them ceases to exist and all that is left is to dwell in the higher realm of pure music-making.

Burkard Schliessmann is in that class of musicians. His latest album is most assuredly a must-have for pianists and lovers of solo piano music, but also, I'd say for the general music lovers as an example of what musicianship at its finest is all about.

From the grand, rolled chords of the "Sinfonia" of Bach's Second Partita, several things become clear: this is an interpretation of conviction and clarity, caught in ideal sound and performed on a phenomenally well-prepared piano. The piano in question is a Fazioli F278, and heard on home turf; it is unsurprisingly in peak condition.

It is in Schliessmann's use of gesture set against underlying harmonic/structural process that the genius of this reading of the Second Partita lies. The later section of the "Sinfonia" scurries along; there is real insight in the "Allemande", too, lines unfolding limply yet with each note perfectly weighted. Again, there is a close-knit relationship between the local (the touch itself) and the higher structural level (here, the phrase). The "Courante" breathes nobility, the relationship of anacrusis and downbeat clearly micro-analysed prior to performance, ornaments always stylistically applied. Similarly, Schliessmann's left-hand bass articulation in the "Sarabande", a mezzo-staccato as if the notes came from a bowed cello, is both carefully judged and perfectly executed. How teasingly Schliessmann articulates the "Rondeau". The final "Capriccio" is taken at a steady pace, granting it a patina of tranquility underneath the surface activity. This is a fascinating reading, and the live provenance only adds to its heartfelt veracity.

The well-known Italian Concerto also begins with an imperiously rolled chord. Ornaments once more adorn the musical surface with grace, and Bach's harmonic sleights are well realised, in particular interrupted cadences. The central movement is taken daringly slowly, each left-hand note placed carefully, over which the right hand sings. Clarity is once more the watchword for the finale, with a repeated marked emphasis on the opening downward leap. There is an impulsive side to Schliessmann's interpretation that is most appealing. The finest of the Bach performances, though, is that of the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, where gesture is all in the Fantasia. Fantasy is in the title and suffuses Schliessmann's performance, contrasting this with the stricter fugue. There are moments of real grandeur, as if this were a transcription of an organ fugue, yet linear definition is never once compromised. The final high treble statement of the fugue seems to stretch out to the Heavens. Remarkable.

The Bach performances form a valuable appendix to Schliessmann's Goldberg Variations. In an interview around that release in Fanfare 31:3, Schliessmann articulates his thoughts around Bach performance, with especial reference to playing that piece on a modern piano. It is worthwhile remembering (and in a sense, the performances' integrity) remind us that Schliessmann was at one time a pupil of the great organist Helmut Walcha, whose emphasis on the independence of voices in Bach was clearly a lesson well learned..

The account of Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses that follows reveals parallels with his Bach, most notably in the independence of lines (the very first variation is a clear example of this). One of Mendelssohn's most loved works, the Variations sérieuses emerges here as a pillar of the piano repertoire. The imagination of Mendelssohn's writing is emphasized (the fifth variation), while the sixth reminds us that Mendelssohn was perfectly capable of writing angst-laden music (think of the F-Minor String Quartet, too). The facility of the seventh variation is an object lesson in piano playing. The suddenly strict part-writing of the tenth variation is given with real sobriety of outlook, and that same analytical slant shines through variation 13. The whole coheres beautifully, leading to a finale shot through not just with dexterous energy, but with real beauty, so those final chords carry huge weight.

Over on the second disc, the Schumann Fantasie blazes forth. My review of Schliessmann's previous recording of this (from the disc At the Heart of the Piano) appeared in Fanfare 45:3. That was a performance of huge integrity; this, too, but this one is perhaps more human at heart. One feels the impetuous surges of emotion a touch more in the first movement. I have previously written on Schliessmann's chameleon way with the piano, that he adapts his sound appropriately to each composer. And so it is here, with Schumann as sonorous and as burnished as they come. The Fazioli supports this approach fully. The chords that close the first movement are just superbly judged, and how the recording reproduces the piano's tone perfectly. It is in the "song" of the finale that Schliessmann really shines though. Many pianists over-project when the line goes to the middle or lower voices, but Schliessmann gets it just right. There is a momentum to Schliessmann's finale that also feels entirely natural. Schliessmann's interpretations just keep growing in maturity.

It is a rather nice touch that the final piece on the program was Chopin's Waltz, op. 64/2, and the first encore is Schumann's "Chopin" movement from Carnaval. The waltz rhythm of op. 64/2 is maintained as in few other performances, and yet the poignant undercurrent remains intense. Nothing is rushed, and yet scales still sparkle, melodies sing, and the rubato is entirely convincing. Schumann's take on Chopin really does sound like a Schumannesque Chopin Impromptu; This is a dream of a performance: one revels both in the loveliness of the piano and in Schliessmann's playing. Finally, back to Schumann for "Warum?", at once a heart-led outpouring and a study in perfect part-writing: Schliessmann voices the individual lines so that it sounds like a conversation between several participants. A great way to end a fabulous recital.

An almost equal participant in this project is the sound engineer Matteo Costa, who works miracles in capturing the sound of an instrument Schliessmann is clearly besotted with (and rightly so). Detailed and expansive booklet notes by Schliessmann himself are the icing on the Fazioli cake. Schliessmann's questing mind and solid technique present us with interpretations that convince at every level. Recommended.

This most recent release by German classical pianist Burkard Schliessmann appeals - via Schliessmann's extensive liner notes - to an antique aesthetic dating back both to Plato and Boethius, an emphasis on proportion in artistic values that invokes the Quadrivium in Plato's Classical Greece, which established rules for aesthetic balance. The question then arises whether, perhaps in imitation of the equally elaborate exegeses of Artur Schnabel for his studied edition of Beethoven piano sonatas, Schliessmann fulfills and realizes his ambitions or as, in the case of Schnabel, he abandons an elaborately wrought, intellectual exercise in favor of a purely emotional response. Or is some Aristotelian "middle way" at work, a chiseled fusion of ratio and eros that renders Schliessmann's selected repertory in naturally organic proportion?

Schliessmann begins with Bach's 1731 Partita No. 2 in C Minor from the set "Clavier-Übung I," whose richly intoned Overture on the Paolo Fazioli instrument rings with alert authority. Moving from sinfonia to fugue, the movement sings first in arioso then contrapuntal texture. The succeeding Allemande in quadruple meter maintains the clear, vocal character in Bach's especial polyphony. Fiery energy marks the Courante, its triple meter gallop invested with passing ornaments that will soon illuminate the various galanterie elements embedded in this dance suite. The emotive heart of the piece, the Sarabande, reveals its haughty, Spanish origins, the triple meter asserting emphasis on the second beat. Schliessmann urges the pace as an andante, a confident, walking tempo. The more intricate Rondeau offers a quick dance in sprightly triple time, one beat per measure. Lastly, the Capriccio, which likes to stress the second half of the measure, music rife with agogic possibilities. Schliessmann has not sacrificed Bach's eminently dance-like impulses for anything like academia, and the recording (3-5 April 2023) has the immediate glow of a refreshed consideration of music of elder vintage.

Bach conceived his 1735 Italian Concerto in F after the style established by Corelli, Torelli, and Vivaldi, involving competing musical masses, the large ripieno group against a responsive, small concertino. Originally written for a two-manual harpsichord, the texture for the modern piano demands various, dynamic niceties from Schliessmann. The ritornello theme must sound palpably at different degrees of the scale and then undergo polyphonic treatment. The assertive Allegro that opens the concert posits tonic and dominant modes immediately, the solo part's residing in the right hand, the left's providing the larger (orchestral) body. Those auditors used to faster, fleeter renditions may find Schliessmann a trifle precious in his articulation of Bach's active filigree in the outer movements, a desire to combine earnestness of purpose with brilliance of correct execution. For the marvelous Andante movement, Schliessmann's approach renders an operatic, cantabile melody line touched by hints of the tragic muse. Bach eliminates any residue of musica ficta by having carefully provided every detail for ornamental realization in grace notes and turns. The last movement, Presto giocoso, asks Schliessmann to "cut the rope," as Zorba would say it, to allow the sense of abandon to musical bliss have its way. Lively, but a touch reluctant, the Schliessmann rendition retains the high spirits of its inspiration.

The extraordinary Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor (c. 1720) challenges Schliessmann's capacity for intuitive improvisation, that balances a constant tension between thick, chromatic densities and disarming periods of parlando recitative. Schliessmann's opening foray in toccata style reveals an impulsive confrontation with Bach's often colliding effects, the urgent runs and meditative rhetoric of often enharmonic modulations and sustained pedal points. The approach we hear seems eminently Romantic in character, the sliding of harmonic shifts in dynamically altered hues having created a mist of erotic, lyrical, and spiritual tension. The studied entry of the Fugue invites "academic" or "contrived" epithets, but the evolution of the voice parts and their increased layering soon transcends the medium of the keyboard to accomplish a richly vibrant, instrumental motet. The influence of the Fazioli keyboard action contributes to the clear, gripping resonance of effect, the pungent sonority courtesy of Recording Producer and Sound Engineer Matteo Costa.

Mendelssohn's contribution, his 1842 Variations sérieuses, extends Schliessmann's explorations of organic unity of musical design, the key of D minor now evidently an extension of the affektenlehre the pianist considers crucial to the architecture of his recital. That the music shares with the Schumann Fantasie the same, venerating impulse to celebrate Beethoven in a fund-raising campaign for a monument to the titan in Bonn, cements an extra-musical consistency to the program. Mendelssohn has sublimated his own impulse to virtuoso ostentation with a theme, seventeen variants, and a Presto finale that culminates a huge canvas balancing melodic beauty and structural integrity. Each of the variations arises directly out of the harmonic and rhythmic motions of its predecessor, a strategy that adumbrates procedures common to Brahms and Schoenberg. Bach's influence resonates in Variation 10: Moderato, made lucidly apparent in Schliessmann's tempered realization. Yet, the call to variations brillantes endures, and several of the sections reveal Schliessmann's natural bravura when required, as in Variation 16: Allegro vivace, Variation 17 and the breathless Finale-Presto.

Schliessmann turns to his pièce de resistance, Robert Schumann's 1836 (rev. 1839) Fantasie in C Major, whose passions embrace the gamut of tonal expressivity from Bach and Beethoven to Wagner. A hybrid work in sonata-form, the Fantasie fuses Schumann's innate musicality with his equally ardent pursuit of the poetic impulse, its spontaneous seizure of the transcendent intuition, or what might be termed the "nostalgia for the dream." Given its etiology as part of the scheme to raise in Bonn a monument to Beethoven, the work's allusions to the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, to the Moonlight Sonata, and to the A Major Sonata, Op. 101 impress, rather than embarrass, us. Schumann called his Fantasie "a profound lament" to Clara Wieck, his intended, from whom he suffered a forced separation in 1838; so, the intimately personal nature of the music seeks an exaltation, an apotheosis, in Classical, epic terms.

Schliessmann addresses the opening chords of the rhapsodic first movement with the ardent rapture of cosmic yearning, even beyond the quoted lines from Schlegel. The counterpoints well hint of the nexus of love and death, the height of passion confronted with the paradoxical abyss of erotic denial and fulfillment. The three-note motto in the "Legend" achieves a potent series of stretti, often leaving off on an unresolved cadence that lingers at an emotional precipice, soon to beckon for salvation way of the A-flat's appeal to the "distant beloved." The ruminative passages offer moments of poetic transport, brief islands of relief between fateful urgings of the grandly sweeping landscape that feels conversant with Shelley's synoptic West Wind.

The E-flat Major second movement, played Moderately as directed, proffers a stoic march in dotted rhythm that might have sent the League of David in search of kindred spirits, inhabiting as it does the same universe as the second movement in Beethoven's Op. 101. The oncoming syncopes, however, drive the music forward to the middle section, a brief intake of bliss before the relentless rush to judgment of the coda's leaping, neurotically insistent figures.

Schliessmann conceives the entire last movement as a dream-scape, an ardent love-song worthy of the music's dedicatee, Franz Liszt and its spiritual inspirator, Clara Wieck. The poetically improvisational character of the music Schliessmann conveys through his restlessly searching left hand, as the music rises to the level of a long-sought chorale. The repetitive structure of the music suggests Nietzsche's "Eternal Return," rife with the spiritual resolve of his equally potent notion of Amor fati, love of one's predetermined fate. The sense of freedom Schliessmann invokes at the coda reminds me less of the Moonlight Sonata than of the last pages of Beethoven's Great Fugue, a liberation after the most strenuous of rhythmic and structural directives.

Schliessmann, to conclude his recital proper, addresses the "iconoclastic Classicist," Frédéric Chopin, in only one piece, his ever-popular Valse in C# Minor, Op. 64/2. Here, the fusion of freedom-in-necessity crystallizes in the application of controlled rubato, exercising a fluid, singing line within a strict pulsation. Expressively nuanced, the music accelerates and retreats in coy, salon gestures, both bemused and subtle in their tragic lilt. In its last incarnation, the motto theme seems to skitter away into the aether.

Schliessmann's two encores return to the poetic muse as it inhabits Schumann: his "portrait" of Chopin from Carnaval, an invocation of lonely nobility of spirit; then, the unanswered question, "Warum?" from the Op. 12 Fantasy-Pieces, whose series of rising and imploring figures might tempt Silenus to respond in his tragic wisdom: only that we may pass away. Schliessmann's recital, however, will endure.

The original version here:

Burkard Schliessmann's performance of the Berg Sonata Op. 1 is a penetrating one.

The piano is superb, as is the acoustic. ...There is musical intent and a strong personality evident ... Schliessmann is clearly a strong musical personality.

Originally recorded in 2007, Burkard Schliessmann’s superb performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has now been reissued in Dolby Atmos format. Lossless and with an Apple Digital Master, the sound feels perfectly ‘placed’ so one hears every nuance of Schliessmann’s playing. And there is no doubt his reading has developed over many years: listening to it feels almost intimate.

Right from the outset the Aria and Variation 1 reveal Schliessmann’s textural clarity. His finger-strength is remarkable, each line perfectly articulated. Playing on his own Hamburg Steinway, he allows himself some leeway with ornamentation, exuding spontaneity without ever losing the underlying pulse. As the performance unfolds, we meet the entire human condition, from humour (Variation 23) to the dark introspection of the so-called ‘Black Pearl’ (Variation 25). Schliessmann’s performance is carefully calibrated on both macro- and micro-levels. This, coupled with an understanding of Bach’s gesture and rhetoric, makes this reading absolutely compelling – as is Schliessmann’s highly-informed booklet note.

So it is that the return of the Aria (heard after a noble quodlibet) holds great emotional power. Superb.

If we didn’t know better, we might have imagined that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his great Goldberg Variations with the foreknowledge that it would be performed several centuries later on by an artist with the temperament and patience of Burkard Schliessmann. Certainly, our German contemporary comes well equipped for the task, being a dedicated musical scholar as well as possessing the mature keyboard technique needed for the Goldbergs. As I remarked of this artist some time ago, he is the last sort of pianist you would expect to just play the notes as written, and without comment. That is important because Bach’s approach to the Variations, while exhaustive, was not perfectly intuitive.

Nor was it intended to be. As he did in his Well-Tempered Klavier, Bach was working from a theory of harmony that was well in advance of the music of his day, with clear guideposts as to what the future held in store. The Goldbergs consist of thirty variations on an Aria da capo that is essentially a slow Sarabande. It is an emotionally moving, highly ornamented melody in three-quarter time with a descending arpeggio midway through that always gives me goose bumps, as often as I’ve heard it. These variations are also unusual in that they are built on the bass line of the aria, rather than its melody, a procedure that yields high dividends harmonically.

The variations themselves occur in groups of three, with the third being an imposing canon in which the melody in one hand is imitated by the other in a succession of ever-increasing intervals, from a canon at the unison (Var. 3) to a canon at the ninth (Var. 27). Of particular interest is the way the variations in the second position in each group of three (Nos. 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, and 29) may be taken to constitute what Baroque scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick described as “arabesques.” Performing them requires feats of prestidigitation, involving much hand-crossing and considerable freedom and flexibility of arms, hands, and fingers.

Starting off with a stately French Ouverture in dotted rhythms, there is a lot of musical treasure to be absorbed in the Goldberg Variations in terms of harmonic theory, technical challenges for the performer and sheer auditory pleasure for the listener. The latter may rightly sense there is a compelling drama unfolding here, without knowing exactly how or why. We leave that to a skilled interpretive artist of the calibre of Burkard Schliessmann. Suffice it to say these variations never fail to intrigue, in many ways. For many, the emotional deep point of the Goldbergs will be Variation 25, which famed harpsichordist Wanda Landowska described as the “black pearl” of the set. Its message of solace and consolation for a weary world is as much in need as ever in our time. Another is the repeat of the Aria da capo at the very end, a moment that always bring a lump to my throat. As Schliessmann rightly surmises, the notes are the same as we heard at the beginning, but there’s a difference. They are sadder, softer, wiser. We feel we have been on a long journey.

This performance was recorded in 2007 (there was an interview and review around it in Fanfare 31:3); this is the 2022 remastering, available also on Dolby Atmos. I have followed Atmos since launch, and feel it is a force for good; and if anyone needs convincing, this release will do the trick. The sound here is anything but “floaty” (a frequent criticism of Atmos); it just feels perfectly positioned. We hear everything as Schliessmann intends; this review auditioned both via Atmos and the physical Super Audio Compact Discs, and it is Atmos that feels the most involving. The sound feels purer, more crystalline; if there is a visual analogy, it is like one’s first upgrade to Bluray from DVD. The aim of all of this – recording ,transmission medium, player, piano – is to make us forget they are there and to bring us to Bach via Schliessmann, Divine Art and Dolby Atmos conspire to come closer to this ideal than anyone else. On a purely musico-emotional level, I derived more pleasure from the Apple Music Atmos medium.

Schliessmann’s decision to play Bach on the piano might lose some purist listeners, but it would be their loss. The intellect that has gone into this realization is huge; similarly, the emotional range. As one listens, it feels as if the wisdom of centuries is somehow filtered down via some sort of alchemical distillation into the theme. Schliessmann gives the theme pace (one can hear the shadow of a slow dance in the background). The Aria also demonstrates the superior quality of his own Hamburg Steinway (the recording was made in Teldex Studio, Berlin). That “his own Hamburg Steinway” is significant, as Schliessmann knows this instrument inside and out; it is an extension of himself. Listen to the glistening clarity of “Variatio I," and his way with the ornaments, free and improvisatory, and yet the pulse remains ever intact.

It is the freshness of the play of voices that impresses so much; dialogues proliferate (listen to the ever-so-civilized one in Variatio 3). This approach also enables a real sense of humor (Variation 23). Schliessmann’s touch is impeccable; so much reminiscent of that used by Argerich in her classic DG recordings. Yet his rapport with Bach is if anything closer. By bringing a sense of play to this performance (and with it, light), Schliessmann almost invites us to reframe Bach’s intricacies as expressions of joy. This is the pair opposite of the lumbering high seriousness of Lang Lang’s disaster of a traversal (DG). Tempos, even when he reinvents a variation (as in the Tempo di Giga, Variatio 7), feel perfectly judged. There is no hunt of awkwardness that even the best can bring (I think particularly of Variatio 8) where even Angela Hewitt (either Hyperion version, or even in a live performance I attended in Manchester, UK) can sound just a touch off-track; the same could be said of Schliessmann’s cat-and-mouse way with Variation14.

The sheer variety of touch on display is remarkable. Variatio 13 seems to demonstrate this aspect of Schliessmann’s performance in microcosm. At the heart of all of this seems to be an awareness of Affektenlehre; listen to how the sighs of the Variatio 15, of the grand gestures of the Ouverture that opens the second part (Variatio 16). The remarkable Variatio 25 (sometimes called the “Black Pearl” variation) becomes the emotive heart of Schliessmann’s account; just shy of ten minutes’ duration, he makes sure we hear the sheer modernity of Bach’s writing. Interestingly, the decorations of Variatio 26 feel modern after that, ahead of their time (as Bach was, of course), as does Variatio 28 (with its neighbor-note oscillations that explode into joyful lines).  Yet the nobility of Variatio 30 is absolutely of its time.

The return to the beginning, the Aria, at the end has the effect of closing this cycle of a Universe co-created by Bach and Schliessmann. This is important, as it means that what we experience in this traversal is exactly what variation form brings: the examination of an object (the “Aria”) from a multiplicity of viewpoints.

The booklet note is extensive, a university-grade lecture, and cherishable in its own right.

In 2009, the original release from Bayer (100326) made my best of the year list. I found the SACD recorded sound to be about as perfect as technology allows and Schliessmann’s playing comparable to the intellect and control of Gould without his eccentricities or vocal embellishments. Here, with Divine Arts new release, the sound quality moves up a notch and the recording becomes readily available again. Newly remastered in 5.0 Dolby Atmos audio, it is available in both two channel HD stereo (my review copy) and offered as a hybrid 5-channel SACD/CD. I enjoyed having a reason to revisit this and my opinion has not changed in 14 years. It is still one of the top Goldberg Variations. I also refer readers back to an intriguing interview and superb review of Schliessmann’s original Bayer release by James Reel in FANFARE 31:3 (Jan/Feb 2008). 

The title page of the first edition of the Goldberg Variations (1741) begins with Clavier Übung (Keyboard Practice). This was the fourth publication of Bach’s to carry this title and all were published during his lifetime. The first was the six Partitas, second was the Italian Concerto and French Overture, the third was an odd collection of organ pieces including a Prelude and Fugue, 21 Choral Preludes and 4 Duets. A host of great pianists have played and continue to play these harpsichord pieces on a single 88-note keyboard. Bach’s music defies whatever medium it is played on. Yes, there are significant difficulties in doing so and great pianists like Schliessmann overcome these without drawing attention to those difficulties. 

I am consistently impressed with the phrasing and delineation of the voices under Schliessmann’s fingers. He draws the listener into Bach’s world of counterpoint. These variations can get quite complicated and are often in at least three voices. Keeping these distinct, especially on one keyboard requires detailed and difficult attention to the phrasing of the inner voices. His tempos are a little more relaxed than Gould’s and of course there is no low level singing in the background. I have enjoyed this recording for quite some time now and will continue to with this new Divine Art release.

In the Jan/Feb 2022 Fanfare (45:3), I reviewed At the Heart of the Piano, a three-disc release from Divine Art (DA), showcasing Burkard Schliessmann in music by Bach (arr. Busoni), Schumann, Liszt, Scriabin, and Berg. For the greater part, these are reissues of recordings previously released on the Bayer label. I summarized my appreciation for Burkard Schliessmann’s artistry:

Schliessmann plays all of this challenging repertoire with an impressively assured technique that is always at the service of the music. Schliessmann is a pianist who avoids such exaggerations as italicizing passages to showcase his virtuosity, extremes in tempo, or an excessive application of rubato. That said, Schliessmann’s interpretations exhibit a convincing ebb and flow, and the ability to draw upon a wide range of colors and dynamics to create the appropriate sound world for the work at hand. Schliessmann is also an artist with a keen sense of pacing. Both the Bach/Busoni and Schumann Symphonic Etudes are notable both for the accomplished and expressive way Schliessmann executes the variations, and the manner in which he connects one variation to the next.

A new release from DA (again, a reissue of a Bayer recording) presents Schliessmann in the Everest of solo keyboard variations. In the Jan/Feb 2008 Fanfare (31:3), James Reel interviewed Schliessmann, and offered a most positive review of the initial Bayer release of the pianist’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations:

For the most part, Schliessmann presents this as music of optimism and joy, the exact opposite of much of Simone Dinnerstein’s recording, reviewed in the previous issue. Oh, Schliessmann does know when and how to get serious, as in the extended (though not distended) traversal of the 25^th variation (discussed in the accompanying interview). Yet even here, the playing is not self-consciously weighty; he doesn’t try to make Bach sound like Beethoven… if you want something more in the tradition of Glenn Gould’s first recording, minus some of the peculiarities but plus the repeats, Schliessmann’s account is highly satisfactory.

I share James Reel’s enthusiasm for this recording. The admirable qualities I noted in my review of At the Heart of the Piano are evident here as well. And Schliessmann does a superb job of realizing Bach’s all-embracing musical and emotional journey. In such episodes as the opening and closing Aria, and the aforementioned Variation No. 25, Schliessmann adopts a strikingly expansive, introspective, and poetic approach. But when the occasion merits, there is also a welcome lightness of touch, and even playfulness. In his extensive and thought-provoking interview with Reel, Schliessmann notes how essential the jeu perlé technique is not only to Mozart and Chopin, but Bach’s Goldberg Variations. And Schliessmann’s combination of precision and elegance in fleet passagework is most gratifying throughout this recording. The Super Audio CD sounds quite impressive on my conventional two-channel stereo system; Schliessmann’s Steinway D-274 concert grand emerges with richness and clarity. The pianist’s superb liner notes further enhance this admirable release. Recommended.

Divine Art reissues Burkard Schliessmann's July 17-19, 2007 recording of Bach's epic Goldberg Variations, remastered in 2022 at the Teldex Studios, Berlin in a process dubbed Dolby Atmos. The broad approach to Bach's construct, an Aria and 30 Variations, including repeats, stretches the performance time to some 83 minutes, more competitive with the 1995 St. Petersburg traversal by Rosalyn Tureck than that of  Schliessmann's professed affinity for the strictures of Glenn Gould, whom Schliessmann quotes extensively in his florid, booklet commentary. Unlike Gould, Schliessmann does not attempt to compromise his Steinway Grand Piano D-274 with touches approximating harpsichord sonority. Rather, the close resonance of the keyboard recommends this high flown, intellectual performance, in modern sound, as a distinct musical entity in the Bach performance canon. Kudos to Recording Producer Friedemann Engelbrecht and Sound Engineer Julian Schwenkner for the vivid imagery their collaboration has fixed for this survey.

The sonic immediacy of the remastering follows Schliessmann in his essentially harmonic approach to this monumental conception, essentially an ouroboros whose beginning and end, the Aria, encloses itself. The bass line provides the impetus to the entire structure, the various melodies and dances a mere accompaniment and elaboration of the bass. At every third variant Bach introduces a contrapuntal gambit, inserting a series of canons that graduates in spatial intervals as the music proceeds, from the unison to the ninth degree. Bach then resorts to his Homeric sense of humor, applying his polyphonic mastery to what he calls a quodlibet, a combination of profane, popular tunes that, by Bach's musical alchemy, achieves timeless nobility.

The cleanliness of articulation, perhaps tending to the dry and pungent, manages to add a decisive, rhythmic spice to such events as the Variation 7 in Gigue tempo. The overt virtuosity of Variations 14 and 15 rings with dexterous authority, while the tragic Variation 25 in its minor mode elevates us to another world whose veil has been lifted. The sense of an evolving structure appears foremost in Schliessmann's concept, as we move through elaborations and ornaments, determined, geometric forms to a higher sensibility that Bach always regarded less as an aesthetic exercise, but as a moral imperative.

The intricacies of Bach's stunning achievement here, in the "Keyboard Practice" of 1742, have been well documented by commentators and scholars. That the music transcends explanatory pedantry poses the challenge for any performer technically equipped and intellectually intrepid in the face of consummate, creative mastery. Schliessmann joins those blessed with the mission to deliver Bach's vision in that fusion of ratio and eros, intellect and intuition, that endows the realization with poetic mystery. An hour-and-one-half spent on hallowed musical ground might suffice for a Sunday service.

The original version here:

After his 3-CD box set “Chronological Chopin”, which was released in 2016 and was highly acclaimed by the media, Burkard Schliessmann is now presenting a new collection of three CDs on Divine Art, entitled “At the Heart of the Piano”. It is an attempt to approach the piano as an instrument and to wring one’s deepest emotions from it. The title addresses the philosophical question of whether the piano, a first glance the most non-physical of all instruments, consisting largely of wood and metal, which produces a perfect tone by simply pressing a button without physical effort, can convey and express feelings at all, has a heart. Burkard Schliessmann wants to prove this with a very intimate repertoire that means a great deal to him and that brings together various aspects of the piano literature on three CDs). These are exclusively older recordings from the years 1990 (Scriabin), 1994 (Bach/Busoni and Berg), 1999 (Schumann Fantasy and Liszt) and 2000 (Schumann Etudes), which have either never been made or only in a small edition and regionally restricted have appeared, and they shine with new mastering in fresh splendor, so that they are now given the soundworld they deserve. Schliessmann used his own grand piano for all recordings; as a Steinway Artist this is a Steinway Piano D Concert Grand.

Burkard Schliessmann describes himself in his detailed accompanying text for the triple CD, which reveals both facts and personal views on the pieces, as a representative of the “great romantic tradition”. “Technical mastery is of course important, but my interpretations remain essentially intuitive. I don’t think about it and I don’t worry about the implementation of my interpretation.” Although this may certainly be true for the moment of the performance, he is thereby concealing the immense work that he had previously – must have had – with the works. Because it is unmistakable that Schliessmann has thought carefully about what he wants to say with the works and how his personal voice should flow into the notes. In the recordings he shows himself to be a pianist with a strong character who knows how to shape the works according to his ideas and thus tailor them to him. Schliessmann interprets the famous Chaconne in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach in the virtuoso transcription of Ferruccio Busoni as an attempt to synthesize a baroque and an early modern style of playing. He saves the tempo rubato for special moments in order to maximize expression there.

Schumann is played by Burkard Schliessmann truly appassionato, taking the fantasy in a comparatively more classical way in order to be able to make the symphonic etudes all the more romantic and lively – but this impression may also be partly due to the different reverberation, because here the ambience is more apparent  in the etudes (while on the other hand the acoustics flatter the piano sound very clearly and clearly in the other recordings). In both pieces, the pianist uses clear tempo contrasts and rubato for a strong effect, separates individual passages from each other and thus gives the music a vivid, spontaneous, almost improvisational aspect. He plays with the reverberation of the pedal to develop orchestral sonority, although I would argue that he does not see the “symphonic” nature of the etudes in the imitation of certain orchestral instruments, but purely in relation to the differentiated tonal colors of the piano. Schliessmann also experiments with the relationship between the voices, which is clearly evident in variations four and sixteen: the melody remains clear, but always has to assert itself against the seething secondary voices, which makes for extremely exciting listening.

Franz Liszt’s daring Sonata in B minor, which was only recognized late by the public, presents Burkard Schliessmann in a quite aggressive manner; he lets the sound soar to unimagined heights and even takes the liberty to present some highlights violently – probably just like the great virtuoso and showman Liszt might have played it at the time to more deeply polarize the effect. But the fact that this is not Schliessmann’s top priority is shown by the deeply musical development of the themes and their modifications in the course of the piece, whereby he lends the main theme in particular an eerie, oppressive presence. In this way, he succeeds in creating an overall impression of a sophisticated psychological nature that appears to be unified and consistent in itself.

In the works by Alexander Scriabin, Burkard Schliessmann presents a program across all the composer’s creative periods, from the Etudes opp. 2 and 8 and the Préludes op. 11 to the Sonata in F sharp minor op. 23, which shows more individual writing, to the late Dances op. 73 and Préludes op. 74, which appear absolutely independent in the history of music in their spiritual appearance and the complex extended harmony. The flowing, freely presumptuous forms are in the instinctive playing of the pianist, who brings the individual moments to bloom while knowing how to hold the overall form together. The rhythmic polyphony between the hands or their individual voices spurs him on to maintain a high degree of delicacy, even in grandly triumphant passages. Schliessmann pushes the contrasts to extremes and thus shows even the early Scriabin as a modern, progressive composer.

The program closes with Alban Berg’s Sonata op. 1, a showpiece of early modernism and especially of free tonality, which however always reveals tonal relationships. Schliessmann creates a bridge between the second Viennese school and the ecstatic Scriabin, brings out a certain volume in Berg too and allows himself tempo-related liberties in order to underline the density of the polyphony. In this way, this stylistically uniform and yet versatile presentation of Schliessmann’s pianistic work succeeds, which, through the pianist’s highly personal views, brings us closer to masterpieces from different eras in a very human way and invites us to explore them.

The original here:

“At the Heart of the Piano” is a 3-CD collection of dynamite recordings by Burkard Schliessman that really define him in terms of his distinctive profile as a pianist. The native of Aschafffenburg Germany has often been noted for his passion for using all the resouces of the instrument to get to the heart of the music and bring it out in all its expressive power and beauty. In that respect, he reminds me of the fondly remembered American pianist Earl Wild (1915-2010), especially in his accounts of the Romantics.

Speaking of which, his Schumann recordings call for special recognition. As I said of Schliessmann in a review some years ago, “he is the last sort of pianist you would expect to just play the notes as written, without comment.” The composer would certainly have approved. In his account of the Symphonic Etudes, which Schumann described as “etudes in the form of variations,” Schliessmann incorporates the five “posthumous etudes” that Brahms published after the composer’s death, carefully distributing them for best effect to fill out the harmony. That is no easy task, but carefully placed, these etudes add much in the way of searching, introspection, and exaltation to a work that is already distinguished for its wealth of color and for Schumann’s notable mastery in blending, contrasting, and superimposing timbres. Schliessmann takes all these issues in stride, making this an eminently satisfying account of one of the most difficult works in the repertoire.

He also does a fantastic job in Schumann’s Fantasia in C Major, Op. 17, a work marked by rhapsodic lyricism occasioned by trill structures, which are typically in downward motion, in the opening movement. It is succeeded by a march in the middle movement that culminates in sensational back-rhythms and syncopations that still have the power to astonish us today, and a finale whose harmonic structure conjures up the image of a star-filled night of which Schumann was doubtless thinking when he subtitled this movement “Crown of Stars.” The reader will note how the composer reversed the usual order of this slow movement, marked “thoroughly fantastic and sorrowfully laden” (Durchaus fantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen) and what then became the middle movement with its thumping fortes in the afore-mentioned march.

There follows Franz Liszt’s wonderful Sonata in B Minor, in which the dramatic tensions, and releases of the same, are in part a direct function of an unusual structure in which all the elements of sonata-allegro form (exposition, development, lead back, and recapitulation) are encompassed by a single movement, played continuously. Any pianist less knowledgeable than Burkard Schliessmann might easily end in disaster in a work that has also been unified by a considerable application of cyclical form, making it imperative to think ahead to where you are going. Carefully considered pauses, allowing the music room to breathe, powerful climaxes, hard-won struggle, and then a devotional atmosphere based on high, bright harp-like chords, and then a radiant conclusion sinking softly into near-inaudibility: all these and more contribute to the effectiveness of the B Minor Sonata in an informed interpretation. Schliessmann’s is one of the best, an inspiring triumph of faith and art.

The program actually begins with J S Bach’s famous Chaconne from Violin Partita No. 2 in the piano transcription by Ferruccio Busoni which is the first track on CD1. In retrospect, it seems as much of a work of Busoni as it is of Bach. Certainly, the changes of tonal color, dynamics, and increasingly dense harmonic effects are more easily accomplished and more effective than they would have been on the harpsichords available to Bach, as is Busoni’s extensive use of the pedal. On the other hand, Schliessmann has to work harder to achieve its demon pacing and high-energy rhythms on his modern Steinway D. The moments of calm and reflection that accompany heart-stopping key changes at about 7:10 and 10:55 in this performance have all the effect anyone might desire.

CD3 is dedicated solely to two composers whose work was absorbed in speculations about the future of music, Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) and Alban Berg (1885-1935). They could not have been more different. Scriabin, the Russian, showed only the most casual reverence for received musical tradition. He was a visionary, in his quest for ever more brilliant tonal expression as well as in his own spiritual orientation, based on the Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky but going beyond that in his embrace of enraptured musical tones. His Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 23, represents an early breakthrough, particularly in his choice of an extraordinarily rich and difficult key with no fewer than six sharps in its signature. The work has the requisite four movements of a classical sonata, to which it pays homage, but clearly Scriabin is interested in something other than thematic development. The final movement, Presto con fuoco, ends suddenly without a decisive finish, as if Scriabin had finished digging all the brilliantly colored musical ore in this particular mineshaft.

It would be easy to dismiss so many of this composer’s musical explorations as mere incontinent rhapsodizing (as some observers have continued to do to this day), but that would be to miss the point of what this composer was all about. In a 66-minute selection including Preludes, Etudes and Dances, Schliessmann presents Scriabin as a man on a quest for transcendently beautiful tonal expression in large forms as well as small. Using chains of thirds and transposable fourths, he created musical structures of great beauty. In the process, he also showed other composers what could be done with rich and rare keys they had generally avoided, such as G-flat major (six flats) and E-flat minor, also six flats. (Its enharmonic parallel is a more accessible F-sharp major). All this he did in the interest of music expression that might be darkly glowing, melancholy or ecstatic.

Someone like Scriabin is obviously a hard act to follow. So, what are we to say of the Austrian composer Alban Berg, whose 11-minute Piano Sonata, Op. 1, concludes the program? At the opening, flickering shy lights take the place of the dramatically compelling or quietly understated introduction we might have expected. As in the Liszt sonata, all the structural elements are subsumed in a single movement, but the thrust is quite different. We have here music that is still basically tonal, leading to musical structures in which melody and harmony are subjected to constant variation and interweaving. In Schliessmann’s sensitive performance, I found a down-to-earth warmth of human emotion that I had not expected to discover in a composer who was to be associated with the 12-tone music of the New Viennese School. For yours truly, that was a nice revelation. 

Having not been familiar with the keyboard art of Burkard Schliessmann, I approached his chosen program of “transcendence, vision, and personified aesthetics of effect” with some skepticism, if not a predisposition for cynicism. The recordings, previously unknown to me, derive from sessions made 1990–2000, here remastered by Paul Baily. To my sustained delight, Schliessmann reveals himself as a Romantic temperament deeply motivated by both intimacy and intuition, sustained by a wholesome and astonishing technical resource. His capacities in contrapuntal music assert themselves fully and without pedantry in Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne from the Partita No. 2, the Schumann Symphonic Études and Fantasie, and in the heroic, stratified figures in the Liszt Sonata, even before he wrestles with the intricacies of Scriabin, whose miniatures often prove more mechanically daunting than his larger forms. The placement and order of the assembled works no less contributes to the cumulative effect of the evolution of a Romantic ethos, an increasingly subjective outlook that subsumes reality into an affirmation of selfhood.

What proves consistent in this traversal of essentially Romantic repertory emanates from the pianist’s sense of space and of individual coloring. Much in the tradition of Cherkassky and Michelangeli, Schliessmann allots each of the evolving musical lines its own breadth, which becomes instantly apparent in the various permutations in the Bach piece and in virtually every line in the Schumann Fantasie. The art of applying silence between notes and distinct musical lines never fails to make or to undo a dramatic performance. In this regard, I find Schliessmann eminently theatrical in style, compelling in the grand line he assumes for each of his endeavors. The Schumann Symphonic Études enjoy their proclaimed “symphonic” ambitions, certainly. But in incorporating the full set of Schumann’s posthumous and various appendices Schliessmann burdens himself with the problem of musical and dramatic continuity, having to sustain a canvas that now spreads out well beyond established time parameters, at almost 40 minutes.

If my remarks seem to suggest a highly “contrived” sensibility, let me assure possible auditors of the miraculous power of spontaneity that permeates these realizations. The Liszt Sonata regains much its shocking originality, its tempestuous and outrageous shifts of mood and musical means, especially in the manipulation of its Grund-Gestalt, its through-composed opening motifs and the subsequent harmonic audacities that follow. The Schumann Fantasie and the Liszt Sonata, works coincidentally dedicated reciprocally by each composer, occupy the same disc, providing an hour’s unrelenting display of controlled, intelligent passion in the same paradoxical moment. The immanence of the urge to poetry suffuses every musical impulse. We sense as we move to the music of Alexander Scriabin and the “new” school of Alban Berg that the keyboard instrument has gained an increased sense of liberation in its power to express subjective reality, even as traditional harmony breaks down. True, we have skipped over the contributions of Beethoven and Chopin, a substantial break in the history of keyboard transcendentalism. But in compensation, Schliessmann turns in disc 3 to a concentrated survey of the Russian mystic Scriabin, all too easily dismissed as an eccentric, musical solipsist who always spells Reality with a capital I.

Schliessmann opens his Scriabin sequence with the 1898 Third Sonata, meant to express the composer’s flights of the soul toward liberation. The oceanic imagery Scriabin invokes for the last two movements, no less based on cyclical motifs and transposable fourth chords, intensifies the paradoxical sense of unity in the midst of free-fall. Schliessmann provides a pungent, searching sonority to the music’s nervous rhythms and ardent declamations. His third movement Andante finds a moment for childlike simplicity. Schliessmann’s left hand helps catapult the last movement, Presto con fuoco, to a Tristan-inspired paroxysm of energy, the “uproar of life,” fraught with fervent rebellion. The taut, forward motion may remind auditors of the classic Horowitz approach. As in his Schumann, Schliessmann applies a canny soft pedal, when required. Schliessmann concedes to popular taste for the moment, performing the two most famous études, those in C♯ Minor and D♯ Minor, with the op. 2/1 providing an immediate contrast to the emotional throes of Sonata No. 3. The famed D♯-Minor returns to the primal passions, insistent and voluptuous. Schliessmann then turns to the variegated world of Scriabin’s 90 preludes, of which the op. 11 set (1888–96) follows Chopin in his arrangement in the circle of fifths, and varying the form of these pieces as nocturnes, études, and mazurkas. A fine example occurs in the E Major, No. 9, in which Scriabin avoids the tonic triad until the end, and Schliessmann’s attentions to designations rubato, ritardando, and accelerando create a poised nocturne tinged by mazurka rhythm. The use of parallel motion in sixths in No. 13 reminds us of Bach as well as Chopin. The pattern of sixths informs the Andante cantabile, op. 16/3, to create its restrained angst. The preludes of 1900, op. 27, reveal a new and rich assertiveness. The Prelude in B Major, op. 27/2, from Schliessmann has a luxuriant abandon, a fertile reverie. Schliessmann plays the Prelude in A Minor, op. 51/2, Lugubre, which the composer avoided in his public performances. The music imparts an eerie atmosphere, somewhat in the manner of late Liszt. Scriabin called it “a ghastly piece!” Fluttering motives define the Dance languide in G Major, op. 51/4, which hesitates and then ends as one of Schliessmann’s riddles.

This commanding, almost regal selection of recordings from Burkard Schliessmann was recorded 1990–2000. It is a shining example of integrity and intelligence in music, welded to a technique of gargantuan proportions. There is logic guiding in the programming also: The Liszt Sonata and Schumann Fantasie bear mutual dedications, while the worlds of Scriabin and Berg are hardly a million miles from one another. This is the first digital issue of all tracks on this set.

The three-disc set therefore posits one route from Bach (in Busoni’s granitic hands) to Scriabin and Berg. The Bach/Busoni Chaconne is a fine performance, big-boned and captured in superb sound that really allows one to enjoy the strength of the bass of Schliessmann’s Steinway piano. In this context, the sober, chordal opening of the Schumann could almost be by Busoni; as the variations unravel, the piece could only be by Schumann. Schliessmann includes the posthumous variations in what becomes a panoramic journey through myriad vistas: Schliessmann’s ability to utilize tone color within stylistic bounds is something any pianist could learn from profitably. Textures are always carefully considered (the tremolos of Variation 16 being a case in point), while the finale is as brilliant as its indication requires, and, most importantly, properly cumulative in context, ending in what amounts to a pianistic pealing of bells. As Schliessmann pointed out to me in an interview once, no less a figure than Brahms included the posthumous variations, so it makes sense to do so.

It is fascinating how, while being part of a larger whole, each individual disc operates as a cycle within itself. So, one has the Bach/Busoni and the Schumann above, perfectly contained and with a real sense of inevitability of continuity; the second disc has those pieces of mutual admiration, the Schumann Fantasie and the Liszt B-Minor Sonata, both major masterpieces of the Romantic era. The sense of grandeur we heard particularly in the Bach/Busoni recurs in the first movement of the Schumann Fantaise, while the tricky second movement holds no perils for Schliessmann (and he maintains the indication Durchaus energisch: energetic throughout). One of Schliessmann’s core properties is that he can bend his sound and way with tempo to each individual composer perfectly, and we certainly feel that here. He creates two separate sound worlds: Schumann’s is full of fantasy, as if trying to escape the world’s strictures and limitations to ascend Heavenwards (one certainly feels that is how the songful finale operates, with those themes ascending ever upwards, garnished with delicious celestial decorations in the high treble), while Liszt’s sublimity is more sensual, more demonic. One hears the prefiguring of the dark nights of Liszt’s very late works in the sonata’s opening, and this colors the octave explosion: yes, we hear virtuosity, but it is part of an over-riding diablerie. While Schumann ascends radiantly, Liszt struggles with his inner demons to do so, and Schliessmann leaves us in no doubt of the power of that struggle. The fine piano he plays on is part of this; it is clearly a majestic instrument, sublimely prepared. Schliessmann’s slower sections have a distinct simmer underneath them, ready to explode into headier regions. It is this mix of visceral excitement combined with a tour guide who always has the end in sight that is so impressive, so that when the end comes, we feel we have come full circle and the journey can begin again. Both the Schumann Fantasie and the Liszt B-Minor sit up there with the greats: Pollini’s DG accounts of both are classics, another pianist with a fierce musical intellect, but Schliessmann offers an alternative that is just as engrossing.

At the Heart of the Piano, a three-disc release from Divine Art, presents German pianist Burkard Schliessmann in a recital of works by Bach (arr. Busoni), Schumann, Liszt, Scriabin, and Berg. The Bach/Busoni Chaconne and Berg Sonata receive their first release on this set. All the other recordings were previously issued by Bayer. The included Scriabin works were recorded in July, 1990, the Bach/Busoni Chaconne and Berg Sonata in 1994, the Schumann Fantasie and Liszt B-Minor Sonata in September 1999, and the Schumann Symphonic Études in March 2000. The new Divine Art set features 2021 remasterings by Paul Baily of all the included material. In the CD booklet’s extensive and informative liner notes, the uncredited author (Schliessmann, perhaps?) states: “Although at (a) glance the works offered here do not share any direct common ground, if considered more closely there are certain common factors with regard to their genesis over time and their conception….” Indeed, there are many elements that connect the works, and in an intriguing fashion. The composers appear in order of their birth years (if we use the “Bach” in “Bach/Busoni” as our start). Within that time progression, each of the three discs explores particular aspects of musical expression. Disc 1, comprising the Bach/Busoni Chaconne and the Schumann Symphonic Études, focuses on theme and variation structures. The second disc pairs the Schumann Fantasie in C Major with the Liszt B-Minor Sonata. Each of the composers dedicated his work to the other. Here Schumann and Liszt, in addition to writing music demanding a virtuoso of the highest order, explore the structural boundaries of the traditional piano sonata (and for that matter, sonata form). The final disc charts the trajectory of Scriabin’s increasingly daring harmonic world, a gateway to Berg’s atonality.

Burkard Schliessmann is one of the currently most appreciated and interesting German pianists at an international level and already boasts a large discography, mainly focused on composers who belong to the European Romantic school. Even his latest recording, a box set comprising three CDs published by Divine Art, does not differ from this principle, as the title itself, “At the Heart of the Piano”,  demonstrates,  The set presents Bach’s Chaconne in D minor in the transcription by Busoni, the Symphonic Studies Op. 12 and the Fantasia in C major Op. 17 by Schumann, the inevitable Sonata in B minor by Liszt;  we have from Scriabin the Sonata in F sharp minor Op. 23, two Studies from Op. 8 and Op. 12, Preludes from Op. 11, Op. 16 and Op. 37 and the Two Dances of Op. 73 and the Five Preludes of Op. 74, ending with the Sonata Op. 1 of Berg.

Considering this program more carefully, on the basis of Schliessmann’s aesthetic vision, one can easily realize how the works and composers can be seen as an explanatory map of musical Romanticism, based not so much on a philosophy to be proposed through the overall sound, but more by  rigorous formal study in which the key content of Romantic thought can be expresed without entering into contrast with what is exposed by the form itself. In this sense, Bach’s famous Chaconne, revised and enunciated by Ferruccio Busoni, is already symptomatic; the choice that Schliessmann makes is not in exalting the transcendental dimension with which this piece is usually presented, but by involving more the immanent aspect, that is the sensitive perception of the artist who performs it. The Chaconne, therefore, seen not in the Bachian vision mediated by Busoni’s technicality, but through the (late) Romanticism of the composer and pianist from Empoli, detaching himself from the pure spiritual dimension that inevitably invests Bach’s music, shapes the primeval matter according to the modalities and the urgencies of one’s time. From here, the technique itself becomes a form of transcendentality with which to draw the prerogatives of a vision, the Romantic one or at least of what remains of it, which observes, reflects and offers itself to the ear, heart and brain of those who listens.

But pay attention to an aspect that distinguishes the path of the program chosen by the German pianist, namely that there is a red thread that links each work in the recording to the next, not taking into account the chronological discrepancies of the program itself. Therefore, the Busoni who mediates and “actualizes” Bach is very close to that technical transcendentality evoked by both Schumann and Liszt, that is, by two custodians of the “sacred” Romantic vision. That is why, in the name of this “transcendentality”, Schliessmann continues his exploration of the Romantic genre, first with Schumann’s Symphonic Studies and Fantasia and then with the Liszt Sonata. And how does he deal with these pages? The Symphonic Studies undergo dilations and restrictions in the metronome, but this must not cause scandal, as the German artist bridges the possible time lags by frescoing the theme and the variations of this composition with a due passion, such as to give life to a sort of “story” (the “imaginative” Schumann that makes the art of sounds cross over into narrative and literary structures) that unfolds with a coloristic sagacity given to each of the twelve Studies, a color that Schliessmann exalts above all by emphasising the play of tonality given by the chromatic keys and the technique to be used on the basis of the same indications provided by Schumann, which leads to giving life to a timbral fresco that for some may even be exaggerated in its final result (there is effectism, pathos, emotional impetus; but, by God, are we or are we not in the heart of piano Romanticism?) This all however fully falls within the vision that Schliessmann wanted to impose here, which shows how this pianist does not at all suffer from a lack of personality, on the contrary. Hence, abundant monumentalism (Track X – Variation IX), but also soft, rounded brushstrokes, made crystalline (Track XI – Variation X and Track XII – Variation XI), that is, in the very heart of Op. 13, to better highlight the bipolar antagonism of the Schumannian personality, with Florestano and Eusebio going into the ring to give them a blessing.

Such monumentality and delicacy are consistently maintained also in the Fantasia Op. 17, which, as we know, is above all (see the first movement) a passionate and heartfelt act of love towards Clara Wieck and which Schliessmann explores with powerful, full, open, solemn sounds, giving an “architectural” identity to his pianism, in order to solidify the image of the “phantastisch”, as per Schumann’s indications. But also in this case the projection is valid, the “throwing-forward” with which the German artist permeates the entire program in question, that is, preparing the listener for the irruption of the Lisztian Sonata (chronologically, the Fantasia dates back to 1836, while the Sonata in B minor is from 1852 and is dedicated to Schumann). Schliessmann, therefore, ideally builds a bridge, a connection between the passion that seeks to be form, given by the Fantasia op. 13, with a form, precisely, that throws his cloak to the winds to rise to the most free, free from the impositions given by the classicism of the genre; he does it to remember once again how in just sixteen years, those that separate the two works, two worlds that while reconciled in their creative intentionality, are at the same time like two galaxies destined to expand and move away in space.

Here, too, the German pianist does not deny the characteristics of his program, since the reading of the Lisztian Sonata is devoted to yet another “look-ahead”, prefiguring, anticipating, acting as a precursor to what will come after and what Schliessmann justifiably identifies in Scriabin. But let’s go in order. The vision that the German pianist brings to the surface of Liszt’s Sonata is not only devoted to monumentality of form (an element inherited from the past, especially Schumann), but is based on a sound that is increasingly circumscribed in it, that is, enhancing the single sound as a self-referential datum, as a completely autonomous cell that compares itself with the other cells that precede it and with those that follow it. A sound, therefore, decidedly devoted to a modernity that if on the one hand will be deepened by Brahmsian pianism (the one that will fascinate Schönberg), on the other hand it will be faced by Scriabin’s visionary nature.  Scriabin, whose pianism, together with that of Debussy, explores up to essence of the cellular element given by the harmonic conception which is transformed acoustically into a dimension in its own right and which at the same time manages to interpenetrate the other timbral dimensions that surround it and of which it is necessarily part.

And here we come to the third and last disc of this set and which I personally consider the most intriguing and stimulating. Schliessmann has included Sonata no. 3 Op. 23, the Etudes no. 1 Op. 2 and no. 12 Op. 8, the Preludes nos. 1, 3, 9, 10, 13, 14 Op. 11, nos. 3 & 4 Op. 16, nos. 1 & 2 Op. 27, nos. 2 & 3 Op. 37 and nos. 2 & 4 Op. 51;  the Two dances Op. 73 and, finally, the Five Preludes Op. 74. If, in the words of Francis Bacon, the Schumannian Fantasia is given by the pars construens provided by Clara Wieck, the Sonata by Scriabin is modeled on the pars destruens of Vera Isakovic, the unfortunate consort of the Russian composer, who realized ever since his nuptial trip to Paris in 1897 of having made a tragic mistake in marrying her. Thus, if the Fantasia is musically a unifying part, the Sonata on the contrary is devoted to a disintegrating dimension. This disintegration is already an attempt to flesh out the sound, to make it closed in itself through a process of timbral legitimisation in which the phrasing already tends to fragment, to “sectorize”, as well as being, although in its emotional arrogance, more and more diaphanous, rarefied, almost suspended over the abyss of nothingness.

In his interpretation, Schliessmann instead tends to recover a formal legitimacy that allows one to still manifest a sort of “hope”, so that the phrasing is more fluid, less “bumpy”. This does not mean that a rethinking of the vision of “looking forward” is taking place in his interpretation, but it represents a reconsidering in perspective what will come in Scriabin’s musical poetics. Thus, the German pianist takes the Sonata no. 3 so that he draws a line of demarcation between what is still Romanticism and its passing phase, which in the Russian composer cannot be accurately defined as Late Romanticism per se. The disintegration, in this sense, materializes in the exposition and in its development and at last, in the  “Presto con fuoco” which is the tenuous explosion of a continuity that is linked to what was stated at the beginning of the Sonata. And it is here that Schliessmann’s “reconsideration” transforms the “Presto con fuoco” into a launch pad through which to launch a missile whose expressive consistency is represented by the other works by the Russian composer included in this set.

And this has happened since the two included Etudes, in which the sound matter already manifests a change in progress in anticipation of what is destined to take place if it does not come true, that is, that Scriabin would have reached the archipelago of atonality by following a path different from that of Schönberg and the others belonging to the Second Vienna School. This happens from the Étude in C sharp minor which belongs to the Three Pieces of Op. 2 (dating back to 1886-89) and the last of the twelve Études op. 8 which are from 1894-95. These are two Studies that for Schliessmann evidently belong to that process of planning that lays the foundations for starting that specific alternative path to modernity, a modernity, mind you, which does not, however, deny what happened previously.

And here the Preludes taken into consideration, those belonging to Op. 11, Op. 16, Op. 27, Op. 37 and Pp. 51, appear to be nothing short of idiomatic in the choice of the German artist and represent a miracle of “oscillation”, a pendulum that passes alternately between what is still past (Op. 11 no. 9 – Op. 16 no. 3 – Op . 27 no. 2 – Op. 37 no. 3) and what is already future (Op. 11 no. 3 – Op. 27 no. 1 – Op. 51 nos. 2 & 4). Faced with such a choice that intends to show the Scriabinian two-faced Janus, it can and must appear completely obvious that the great final step is represented for the German pianist by the two last piano compositions of the Russian composer, namely the Deux Danses Op. 73 and the Cinq Préludes Op. 74, both dating to 1914, that is to say a year before his death. These two works are, as we know, intimately connected and represent, as Schliessmann points out with his reading of him, the ultimate offshoots of that romantic tension conceived within his aesthetic tradition.

Of course, especially the Op. 74 necessarily refers to the contemporary Six Pieces Op. 19 by Schönberg, an emblem of that process of harmonic dissolution that will inevitably lead to the concretization of seriality, but neither Op. 73 or Op. 74  boast the same purposes, as Scriabin, beyond the mystical intentions to which these last two piano works were designed, are extensions of a past that certainly looks ahead, but is not yet the future, as is perhaps the Schönberg Op. 19. This is why the interpretation made by the German pianist follows this “prudential” line, never pushed into formal excesses, and this is especially true for the Cinq Préludes, since their enunciation aims at least to be “nostalgic”, that is to say, of a past, in his tradition, which senses the moment of change, of passing away, of an end that can no longer be postponed (in this sense, the timbre dimension that Schliessmann provides in the second Prelude Op. 74 is exquisitely evocative).

Nostalgia has been stated. So, to conclude his program dedicated to Romantic transmutation in the piano, a transmutation with an alchemical flavor at times, Schliessmann puts his hand to Berg’s Sonata, which, just to underline the aesthetic purposes of the recording in question, is not addressed in its “radicality ”, but as a sign of something that has by now been lost, a footprint of an ancient stone that wants to be a milestone, that is, to act as a watershed between the (late) Romantic vision and the post-Romantic one. Following this path, I find that Schliessmann, at a piano level, does not differ from what Karl Böhm did at the directorial level by addressing Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’, therefore not considering it as an expressionist creature, a suspended bridge towards ‘Lulu’, but as the ultimate expression of a late Romanticism that was struggling to exhale the last breath.

From here, those who are familiar with the readings made, among others, by Glenn Gould of this Sonata, get ready for a performance by the German pianist in which the few motivic cells that animate it are never exaggerated, or brought to a point of tension close to rupture, but his reading is conceived as a repudiation of fragmentation, a look forward with a look backwards, also because Op. 1 itself is basically an act of gratitude towards that tradition (the Sonata dates back to the two-year period 1907-08, only to be revised by the author in 1920) which at that time is beginning to fall apart (and in this we follow the coeval path taken in parallel by Scriabin himself in that first decade on a sonatic level). Schliessmann thus uses the palette of a passion which, however, now smacks of consummation, a supreme act, a corollary that ideally closes the circle of his journey towards the funeral of Romanticism, returning an unsuspected evocative sweetness, a very fine shroud with which to wrap the corpse, so as to be able to preserve it from the corrosion of time and memory. So be it.

The recordings were made at three different times by as many engineers (ranging from 1990 to 2021), but we do not notice timbral and dynamic imbalances in the use of the piano, rigorously always a Steinway Piano D. Therefore, the dynamics always turns out to be strong, but at the same time sensitive and careful in restoring the necessary nuances of microdynamics; the sound stage adequately reconstructs the instrument at a discrete spatial depth, restoring a pleasant height in the sound, as well as filling the space between the speakers. Even the tonal balance and detail do not fail, with the first always precise in making the low and medium-high register always distinct and never blurred, and with the second showing a remarkable materiality in the physical rendering of the piano.

The Original here:

All of the pieces on this impressive triple album aim at some sort of transcendence. The Bach/Busoni Chaconne is at once a tribute to Bach and a pinnacle of the Romantic piano virtuoso repertoire. Schliessmann's account is noble yet kaleidoscopic. As Busoni pulls Bach into his orbit, so the piano seems to expand into a protoorgan. Schliessmann's intuitive grasp of the work's structure allows him to mould it naturally while retaining the underlying form. Its outsized ending leaves the listener feeling replete.

The limpid, descending phrase that opens Schumann's Symphonic Studies comes as balm to the soul after such high drama. Schliessmann's commanding performance is beautifully variegated. He is right to follow Brahms' approach by including Schumann's posthumously published variations. Grandeur meets tenderness in a performance that suggests Schliessmann's complete resonance with the spirit of Schumann. The coupling of mutually dedicated works on the second disc works well. Schumann's Op 17 Fantasie and Liszt's Sonata in B minor are like two sides of the same Romantic coin. Schumann's writing is utterly individual and Schliessmann's performance is gloriously unbuttoned. The Liszt also receives a fine performance, unrushed in the slower sections, playful and diabolic when the tempo picks up. Schliessmann's technique is rock solid, his command reminding me of Daniil Trifonov in the music's stormier sections. He masterfully navigates the expansive lyricism that lies at the heart of Liszt's masterwork.

The crowning glory of the set, though, is Schliessmann's Scriabin. His performance of the composer's Third Sonata (F-sharp minor Op 23) is magnificently powerful, while the six excerpts from the Op 11 set of Preludes are exquisitely moulded. The two Danses Op 73 and five Op 74 Preludes resonate in perfect harmony with Scriabin's elusive late style. Schliessmann conjures a glittering yet liminal space, supported not only by his fine Steinway but also by the Divine Art recording and piano technician Georges Ammann, who Schliessmann describes as 'the best in the world, and the most prominent piano technician from Steinway' (Ammann only collaborates with five pianists, of whom Schliessmann is one).

The Berg Sonata arises from the fire of Scriabin's Op 74/5 like a phoenix soaring in a post-Tristan world. Schliessmann's considered, polished reading, impeccable in its realisation of complex textures, is a model of its kind. This, coupled with a prevailing crepuscular tendresse gives Schliessmann's reading warmth and academic integrity, bringing his thought-provoking album to a perfect close.