Schumann’s multi-dimensional C major Fantasie can absorb a wide range of interpretations, from Pollini’s symphonic discipline and Kissin’s impulsive fervency to Arrau’s full-bodied volatility and Fiorentino’s majestic gravitas. In this context, Fabrizio Chiovetta is a centrist.
He unravels the discursive first movement in steady yet flexible arcs, underlining harmonic felicities and aching melodies without overdoing them, and always keeping the bass lines in action. The pianist shapes the central movement’s obsessive dotted rhythms into long cumulative paragraphs. His secure and elegantly centered skips in the coda build from what came before; often this passage comes off like an athletic stunt spliced in as an afterthought. His forthright pacing of the third movement has plenty of nuanced give and take, replete with carefully gauged climaxes. In short, Chiovetta gives us an unambiguously masterful reading of a potentially problematic work, with no interpretive dead spots whatsoever.
Likewise, Chiovetta imaginatively characterizes and intelligently scales each of Kinderszenen’s 13 pieces. He allows no garish voicings, overdone accents, exaggerated tempos, or outsized dynamics. No. 9’s hobby horse, for example, has a lovely reigned-in lilt, while No. 10’s brooding lyricism doesn’t wilt into nothingness. Even the hackneyed Träumerei emerges newly minted by way of Chiovetta’s patient contouring of the counterpoint. The Arabeske’s light and supple main theme iterations contrast to the other episodes’ eloquent simplicity, and Chiovetta’s occasional bends in the line and emphatic points never sound contrived. Fabrizio Chiovetta’s cultured Schumann pianism deserves my highest recommendation, and a prime spot in your collection.
