Schumann

In his new album 'Movements', George Li highlights both their structure and their dancing spirit: the 18 movements of Schumann’s 'Davidsbündlertänze' & 'Arabeske in C major', Ravel’s 8 'Valses nobles et sentimentales' and three movements from Stravinsky’s score for the ballet 'Petruskha'.

Far from the dark, tortured image often associated with his music, the works on this album testify to an astonishingly serene period in Schumann’s life. A fine subject for this first album by the Hanson Quartet for harmonia mundi, whose members are partnered by Adam Laloum for a thrilling reading of a masterpiece of the Romantic repertory: the Piano Quintet.

Schumann composed Kreisleriana in April 1838, at the age of 27: “The youthful thing that I can identify with in Kreisleriana is its spontaneity", writes pianist Aaron Pilsan. "If I had to describe the piece, I would use the German word for crazy, ‘verrückt’, which doesn’t just mean crazy, but also to be disconnected from reality. So, crazy, imaginative and intimate… There is a huge connection between these two German composers, as Jörg Widmann was inspired by Schumann’s music a lot and even his musical language is very similar, even though their styles are obviously very different. The starting point for Widmann’s music is from feelings, from the emotions and sentiments and that is where there is a similarity, but not only there. He even quotes Robert Schumann in his tenth Humoreske, taking a bar directly from Schumann’s Geistervariationen."