Gieseking Plays Schumann: Etud

Walter Gieseking was like a musical water faucet. You turned the knob, and out came the complete standard piano repertoire. When he was inspired, or truly engaged in a work, he was one of the foremost pianists of the 20th century. There are moments in this 1951 German Radio broadcast (the Sonata dates from wartime) that brush with genius, but the results sound like a great pianist either sightreading or playing without having practiced. One can understand errors made in the heat of passion and risk taking, such as the unbridled, messy, and absolutely thrilling Schumann First Sonata. But the casual mistakes in the Etudes Symphoniques stick out like sore thumbs. Gieseking archivists, however, will welcome these greatly improved transfers from a previous M&A issue. --Jed Distler