“Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 54 is made for Hélène Grimaud and Valery Gergiev, because they opted for a different path to the usual classical one .. bouncing the piano and orchestra off one another in the enthusiastic introductory bars. Two strong personalities united by an intense desire for expression: Where Gergiev sharpened the oboe and clarinet response to the piano part, Grimaud formed the virtuoso passages with dry brilliance.”
Album review: The Arts Fuse
Grimaud, a pianist whose grasp of the Romantic sensibility (especially the willingness to risk and commit all in pursuit of an artistic goal) is total, has a field day with it here. From the downbeat of the stormy, rhythmically a-blur “Äusserst bewegt,” this is a Kreisleriana that holds nothing back.
