CCMusic.com

More than 15 years since her acclaimed album of Carnaval and Kreisleriana [475 8260], Mitsuko Uchida marks the Schumann bicentenary 2010 with her first recordings of two of his best-loved works for solo piano - Davidsbundlertanze and Fantasie. With this new album, recorded at the Maltings at Snape, Dame Mitsuko shares the wealth of her experience as a Schumann interpreter - bringing to these enigmatic, questing pieces her celebrated musicality and depth of feeling. Written after Schumann was again in touch with his beloved, Clara - whose father was determined she should never marry him - the Davidsb ndlert nze are at once an outpouring of Schumann's feelings for her and a struggle between the two sides of the composer's own musical nature. Fantasie is a deeply introspective soliloquy, beautifully reflected through the emotional complexity of Mitsuko Uchida's pianism.