Schumann is ardent, passionate, turbulent, and unsettling, even in his most dreamy, lyrical moments. You scarcely would figure that out from these performances. Clarinetist Martin Fröst and pianist Roland Pöntinen round each other’s phrases, finish each other’s sentences, and blend each other’s sonorities to the point where the music is smoother than a baby’s bottom. No bumps or wrinkles can be found: every gesture is squarely in place, and the surging melodies are calibrated with just enough inflection to keep you calm as you go up in the office elevator, wait in the dentist’s office, or walk through the upscale shopping mall.
The Op. 102 pieces in “folk style” particularly substantiate my points. Schumann’s original cello lines, with their dark timbre and sometimes-unwieldy layout across the strings, perfectly suit the music’s rustic sensibility. These characteristics are not impossible to convey through a clarinet, but neither Fröst’s seamless tone and melting legato nor Pöntinen’s soft-grained accompaniments provide the answer. Moreover, the engineering’s reverberant patina further enhances my impression of music-making that abounds in fluency and surface beauty yet lacks presence.
