The main question confronting interpreters of Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes concerns text: Do you include all, some, or none of the five variations published after the composer’s death? Like Arrau and Richter, Bernd Glemser is a completist, so to speak. Whereas Richter and Ashkenazy (in his first recording of the work) group the posthumous variations together, Glemser places them separately and effectively within the text. He intones the theme in broad, brooding arcs that radically contrast with his brisk and bouncy treatment of Etude I’s dotted rhythms. While Glemser’s somewhat fidgety response to Etude II’s espressivo directive creates bumps in the melodic road, Etude III’s left-hand cantabile and darting right-hand figurations are beautifully controlled.
Etude IV’s canonic chords seem relatively flinty next to the poise, precision, and uncanny voice-leading you hear from Richter, Schiff, and Hamelin. And yet, while many pianists drag out Etude VIII to gothic proportions, Glemser’s swifter, cooler dispatch makes it easier to realize Schumann’s sempre marcatissimo request. And rather than push Etude IX’s Presto possible marking to the limits of human ability á la Samson François, Glemser plays fast enough for the polyphonic strands to emerge clearly and logically. However, his bland and foursquare way with the rambling Finale disappoints and largely proves to be a harbinger for the C major Fantasy.
To be sure, Glemser’s rock-solid technique easily accommodates the work’s unwieldy difficulties. Yet the first movement’s swirling polyphonic commentaries generally keep to the background, while the climaxes don’t ring out with the full-bodied, impassioned sweep you hear from pianists as diverse as Horowitz, Arrau, Kempff, Andsnes, and Fiorentino. The central march is meted out in square, sing-songy patterns that offer little textural variety or linear interplay. Although you can imagine and actually hear more tenderly nuanced readings of the finale, Glemser’s singing tone finally opens up and takes this music where it needs to go. The ample sonics convey a slightly metallic and monochrome ambience not evident in Glemser’s previous Naxos Schumann recording of the First and Third Sonatas.
