Piano Works

In his last Virgin Classics recital, a varied live program from New York's Carnegie Hall, Piotr Anderszewski included Faschingsschwank aus Wien by Schumann. On this new release, he focuses entirely on that quintessential German Romantic, whose 200th anniversary is celebrated in 2010.

For this new recital, Anderszewski turns his attention to some of Schumann's less frequently performed works. Humoreske Op. 20, Six Studies in Canon Form, and Gesänge der Frühe Op. 133. Humoreske, built in five discreet sections, is far more serious-minded and substantial than its name might suggest. Mercurial in it shifts of mood, it reflects the composer's report to his wife Clara that, while working on the piece, he was "laughing and crying, all at once". Gesänge der Frühe is terse, introspective and harmonically adventurous. By contrast, the Six Studies in Canon Form are lyrical and unobtrusively contrapuntal. Schumann composed them for the pedal piano which, like an organ, had an extra set of notes played with the feet. Anderszewski himself has adapted the pieces for the range of the modern piano and for ten fingers rather than two hands and two feet.

Piotr Anderszewski is regarded as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation. An exclusive artist with Virgin Classics since 2000, Anderszewski's discography includes a Grammy-nominated CD of Bach's Partitas 1, 3 and 6 and a critically-acclaimed disc of works by Chopin. His special relationship with the music of his compatriot Szymanowski is captured in a highly-praised recording of the composer's solo piano works, which received the Classic FM Gramophone Award in 2006 for best instrumental disc.