This release fills a useful repertoire niche. Schumann’s complete works for piano and orchestra total about 75 minutes–just right for one well-filled CD. Two of the pieces here, the Concert Movement in D minor and the Abegg Variations, are reconstructions, and very good ones, and they are all very well played. Florian Uhlig has a lovely touch and impressive technical facility in the flashier Abegg variations. He’s also got the temperament for the Allegro appassionato that follows the Introduction, and the generally fleet tempos prove consistently refreshing.
This is particularly evident in the first movement of the concerto, which is unusually swift but also affectingly shaped. Here, however, in the second subject, as well as at the start of the slow movement, Uhlig pursues a light, staccato tone to the detriment of the music’s natural cantabile impulse. However charming (and it is), the melodies could sing with more lyrical abandon. Still, these are very enjoyable performances, well recorded, with Christoph Poppen and the orchestra providing enthusiastic accompaniments. Definitely worth hearing.
