Not since Murray Perahia's debut Schumann disc has a young player penetrated this mercurial composer's elusive sound world with the dramatic insight, stylistic affinity, harmonic and linear sophistication, and soaring emotion that 22-year-old Freddy Kempf imparts on these thrice-familiar works. True, his rapid Arabesque seems a bit glib and facile, and an unintentional extra beat between the intro and main theme of the Toccata throws the composer's trademark asymmetry askew. Otherwise, the Carnaval and Humoreske are thoroughly competitive with and often superior to the best-recorded versions of these works. The engineering is a bit strident for my taste, but overall the sound is well focused. Buy this disc, and get in on the ground floor of a major pianistic career.

--Jed Distler