For Clara: Works by Schumann & Brahms

For Clara: Works by Schumann & Brahms

Pianists are often overwhelmed by the expressive extremes of Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana. Not so Hélène Grimaud, who brings out fine layers of poetic shading in even the wildest passages of the second and seventh of the work’s eight movements. Her interpretation balances passion and tenderness, grand gestures, and intimate expression, contrasts created by Schumann for his beloved Clara Wieck, who later became his wife and muse. Clara, a fine pianist and composer, was also muse to Johannes Brahms, whose late Intermezzi and earlier Op. 32 songs encompass his lifelong love and affection for her. Grimaud’s rapt readings of the Intermezzi are marked by a Zen-like intensity, unwavering in focus—it’s a condition that she and the equally inspired German Romanian baritone Konstantin Krimmel carry into their brooding performances of the song collection.

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