...[C]ommendable command and spirit [in Carnaval]... I have no hesitation in stating my preference for Cecile Licad, who, for me, has more of the charm, the grace, the imaginative fantasy and last but not least, the immediacy required by the young Schumann on the dance floor. The first two numbers alone at once make that clear... "Pierrot" in its turn brings a far more subtle variety of touch and shading from Licad... [I]t is Licad, more scrupulous in concern for the composer's detailed expressive markings, who I would as willingly have in my own library as the volatile Gavrilov (EMI) and the deep thinking Arrau (Philips).
Though the playing time of Licad's mellowtoned, true-to-life disc is only 52 minutes, her programme artfully spotlights the first five years of Schumann's composing life, working backwards from 1835. Papillons, with its many pre-echoes of Carnaval, is also played with an irresistibly lightfingered spontaneity and musical grace. Yet there is nothing superficially kittenish in Licad's approach. Her characterization is potent again here, with very strongly marked contrasts of tempo and dynamics. And again I would be as happy with this account of the work as any of the catalogue's 'bigger' names. Finally, there's the Toccata, sketched when Schumann was a mere 19 years old, though not emerging in its definitive form for another five years. Licad makes light of all technical problems in a reading nevertheless infinitely more memorable for musical character than mere prestidigitation.
