Robert Schumann’s creative juices run at giddy tilt throughout his Davidsbündlertänze, and their extroverted, explosive qualities suit Jerome Rose’s unfettered virtuosity. The pianist employs the sustain pedal sparingly, helping to clarify the composer’s frequent cross-rhythms yet still allowing climactic points to build up sufficient steam (No. 6 is a good example). At the same time, the lyrical movements have plenty of breathing room and vibrant poetry.
Kreisleriana is almost as good. Rose piles into No. 1 from the start, and occasionally rushes the swirling passagework. His swift and fluent approach to No. 2 sounds a shade hard-nosed and perfunctory next to more patiently spun readings (Horowitz, Kempff, Lupu, among others). Patience and inner calm, though, distinguish Rose’s sensitively projected Nos. 4 and 6. His stormy, headlong No. 7 is actually better controlled than Argerich’s similarly torrential (albeit more emotionally unrestrained) traversal, while No. 8 is surprisingly sedate and held back (Rose underplays, for example, the off-beat left-hand accents). The sonics are not to my taste: dry, lacking in resonant warmth, dynamically restricted, and rather colorless. Should you decide to supplement the above-mentioned reference versions with Rose’s joyful, perceptive performances, you get a veritable bonus via Stephen Wigler’s terrific annotations.
