This release is a new recording featuring the brilliant interpretation of Robert Schuman, the main voice of Romanticism, by the pianist Takahiro Yoshikawa. Yoshikawa has already released two albums on the Ypsilon label dedicated to Beethoven and Debussy, both of which received widespread acclaim. The present album scales three peaks of Schuman’s piano literature. Fantasiestücke Op. 12 (Fantasy Pieces), is a set of eight pieces for piano written in 1837 and presented by some critics as “Tales of The Night”. They describe, indeed, intimate and disturbing scenes of nightlife where the moonbeams dimmed by the clouds create dreams and nightmares. Kinderszenen Op. 15 (Scenes from Childohood) is a set of thirteen quiet short pieces written in 1838. Waldszene Op. 82(Forest Scenes) is nine pieces written between 1848 and 1849 characterized by a more profound introspection. With his particular lyricism, Takahiro Yosikawa conjures here an entirely different sound-world moving between a sharp sense of period style and an extraordinary technique giving all the charm and poetry the German composer intended. In all, this album is a tremendous achievement, and is highly enjoyable and desirable.
