Schumann’s Third Piano Sonata, better known as the Concerto without Orchestra, went through several revisions and modifications, leaving daunting textual options for today’s pianists. The present recording (like Nicolai Demidenko’s on Hyperion) gives us Schumann’s final changes to the second printed edition of 1836, with two important additions: a second, shorter scherzo movement eliminated from the printed text, and two omitted variations from the third movement. It’s a difficult work to sustain, let alone perform. Yet Mi-Joo Lee’s technical mastery and headlong rhythmic drive imbue Schumann’s weedy textures with firmness and inner logic. The pianist’s sweeping, architectonic approach greatly differs from Horowitz’s volcanic temperament and searching, bel canto lyricism, yet easily can be appreciated on its own terms. Lee also makes easy work out of Schumann’s rarely heard and equally difficult studies based on Paganini’s unaccompanied violin caprices. She might fall short of Sviatoslav Richter’s luminescent clarity in Op. 10’s last three selections (found in the Philips Richter Edition, sadly out-of-print in the U.S.), but few others have braved all the Schumann Paganini etudes with equal consistency. MDG’s clangy sonics, however, undermine Mi-Joo Lee’s admirable playing.
