Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
         Solo Piano Works

Toccata in C major, Op. 7 (1830, rev. 1833)
Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13 (1834-36)
Fantasy in C major, Op. 17 (1836)

Earl Wild, piano
Recorded: Toccata at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, September 1974
Symphonic Etudes & Fantasy at Fernleaf Abbey, Columbus, Ohio, October 1990
Ivory Classics 71001 [72:45]

Comparisons:
Toccata - Horowitz/Philips, Nat/EMI, Kempf/BIS
Sym. Etudes - Brand/APR, Okashiro/Pro Piano, Schliessmann/Bayer
Fantasy - A. Fischer/EMI, Arrau/Philips, Richter/EMI, Freire/Philips,
Horowitz/Sony

Born in 1915, it seems that Earl Wild has been with us forever.  Starting
with Herbert Hoover, Wild has performed for six Presidents of the United
States as well as the royalty of the world.  He was the first classical
pianist to give a recital on television in 1939 and has in recent years
been intimately involved with the Ivory Classics record company.

Although strongly associated with the music of Rachmaninov, Wild has
performed the full spectrum of the romantic piano literature.  In
Schumann's piano music, Wild tends to be sharp-edged and impetuous, an
approach that should work very well for Schumann's alter-ego Florestan,
the man of action who forges ahead no matter what the cost.

The disc under review contains three major Schumann works, and I'll go
through them one at a time:

Toccata: Schumann's Toccata is essentially a study in double-notes.
Schumann's intent was to compose the most difficult piano music in the
world, and the result is quite an exercise in stamina.  Unlike so many
other of Schuman's piano compositions, the Toccata is not concerned with
alter-egos or any other thought-provoking themes.  Virtuosity and manic
activity are the keys to a great performance, and no recorded version
does it better than Vladimir Horowitz in his 1934 recording that is
available on a Philips Great Pianists of the 20th Century 2-cd set.
Among modern era performances, Freddy Kempf is also highly virtuosic,
but he comes off as rather antiseptic compared to Horowitz.

Of all other recordings of the Toccata, there is one that actually
injects some deep feelings into the equation - Yves Nat.  I love his
interpretation for its continuity, pin-point accenting, and wealth of
meaningful emotions.  Each motif is given its own identity in x-ray
fashion while also conveying a level of structural coherence that isn't
matched by any other version.  Nat is on the slow side with virtuosity
taking a back seat to story-telling.  This approach would be a disaster
in the hands of most pianists, but Nat pulls it off with transcendent
genius.

Getting back to Earl Wild, his performance of the Toccata is also a
slowish one, but the virtuosity still takes center stage.  Personally,
I would have liked a more wild and manic delivery.  Compared to Horowitz
and Nat, Wild occupies a middle-ground.  He's less virtuosic than Horowitz,
and the emotional depth of his reading is much less compelling than
Nat's.  However, Wild certainly generates excitement and compares well
to all other recorded versions excepting for the Horowitz and Nat
interpretations.

Symphonic Etudes: There are so many wonderful versions of this rich
masterpiece that I had some trouble deciding which ones to use as
comparables for the Wild performance.  So I gathered up over thirty and
just started eliminating them one by one until I felt I had three left
for intense scrutiny with Wild's recording.  Each of the three versions
listed above is a gem and abundantly distinctive to give each one its
own special designation:

Best Combination of Performance & Sound - I anticipated excellent piano
sound from Pro Piano; this company's releases are consistently a example
of superb engineering.  However, I didn't expect all that much from
Okashiro whose Scriabin disc from the same label revealed an undernorished
understanding of the man's music.  But Schumann isn't Scriabin, and my
apprehensions were for naught.  Okashiro has Schumann in her bloodstream;
the sudden switches in personality, the supreme poetry/beauty, the
sharpness of Florestan, and the coherence of the architecture are all
in excellent hands.  As for the sound, it's better than for any other
Pro Piano disc I have heard to date.  To test out my views a little,
I took down my trusty equalizer and was amazed to find that the sound
remained excellent no matter what absurd equalizer positions I used.
It simply is immune to the equipment.  Putting it all together, Okashiro
and Pro Piano have given us a most gorgeous performance of the Symphonic
Etudes fully tuned into all of Schumann's off-center personality traits
conveyed in his music.  Okashiro also offers the five posthumous variations
that Brahms attached to the work as an appendix after Schumann's death.

The "Florestan" Version - Natan Brand, in his concert performance of
1985 from Amherst, Massachusetts gives us the epitome of the Florestan
personality.  In every etude/variation of the work, Florestan is either
at center-stage or licking his lips in the corners waiting for his
opportunity to pounce on the listener.  Brand's Florestan is entirely
shorn of any civility or notion of consequences; he is impetuous,
all-powerful, and deals out his punishments without a trace of human
kindness.  Simply based on the performance, Brand is the man you don't
want to antagonize.  However, he might destroy you just for the hell of
it.  I do want to emphasize that this reading is not for everyone, being
rather brutal and stark.  Also, the sound quality is not good for the
time period, possessing much congestion and a rumbling from down below.
Still, I find the performance riveting and an excellent example of how
one instrument can convey all the horror and underside of the human
condition in as potent a manner as any full-sized orchestra.  Unfortunately,
Brand does not play the five posthumous variations.

Best Eusebius/Florestan Interaction - Listening to the interactions and
conflicts between Florestan and Eusebius can be a compelling experience
in its own right, and the only three pianists I've ever heard who offer
an intoxicating blend of the two Schumann alter-egos are Walter Gieseking,
Vladimir Sofronitsky, and Burkard Schliessmann.  Of course, Schiliessmann
still has a limited reputation, but his Bayer disc that also has a
wonderful performance of Kreisleriana is one of the best Schumann
recordings ever made.  Schliessmann's poetry, power, and fine detail are
lined up with superb sound to give us a version of the Symphonic Etudes
that just might be the best on the market in terms of offering everything
a listener could want.  We also get the five posthumous variations.

As with the Toccata, Wild's performance is excellent but not as
rewarding as the best versions.  His poetry can't keep with Okashiro's or
Schliessmann's, and Brand has a decided edge with the Florestan figure.
Still, Wild does well in conveying the work's coherence, and he is totally
attuned to the sudden changes in tempo and mood.

I'd like to go back to the issue of the five posthumous variations.
When Schumann composed works consisting of many small and related pieces,
he would often end up with more music than he wanted.  His usual solution
was to discard some of the pieces, and this was done with the Symphonic
Etudes.  Eventually, Schumann's work had the Theme and 12 variations.
After his death, Brahms came along and added five variations as an
appendix to the work.

What pianists do with these five posthumous variations is interesting
and quite varied.  The approaches include playing none of them, inserting
them together toward the middle of the work, inserting each separately
in a strategic attempt to enhance the work's coherency and contrast, and
simply playing them as an appendix.  In Earl Wild's recording, he uses
the strategic approach.  Leaving aside the matter of historical accuracy,
this approach works well because the five variations tend to favor the
Eusebius figure and the work as left by Schumann is heavy on the Florestan
side.  Concerning coherency and structural integrity however, I think
that the additional variations change the nature of the music somewhat
and result in a loss of sweep.  As you can tell, I'm straddling the fence
on this one, and the fact is that I love the work with or without the
additional variations.

Fantasy: Up to this point, Wild's performances haven't lit up the stage.
But it only takes one fantastic performance to make a disc indispensible,
and Wild gives it to us with the 2nd Movement of the Fantasy in C.  When
listening to his Toccata and Symphonic Etudes, I was wondering where all
his nervous energy had gone.  Apparently, he saved it all up for that
2nd Movement.  There isn't a faster or more exciting version on record
of this marching and demonstrative music.  Wild is sharp and always keeps
the momentum going and the tension strong.  He appropriately takes respite
in the middle section, but the glory of this reading is in its edge and
drive.  The only other version I know of that is along Wild's approach
is the Nelson Freire recording, and he is so jittery that the Movement
loses coherence.  Although Wild plays the two other Movements of the
Fantasy very well, he can't offer the majesty of the Arrau or Fischer
in the 1st Movement, nor is his depth of feeling at Richter's level in
the 3rd Movement.  By the way, you don't want to miss Horowitz's 1st
Movement that blows away the competition when it comes to intensity.

Don's Conclusions - I'm a little disappointed in this disc, and that's
largely a reflection of my high expectations.  Earl Wild, although a
highly distinctive pianist, only reaches the heights in the 2nd Movement
of the Fantasy.  Elsewhere, he tends to give relatively mainstream
performances among the better recordings on the market.  Given the
differences in recording locations, the sound quality is consistently
dry, stark, and clear; I like the soundstage, but it is a far distance
from the best of modern piano sound.  Overall, I recommend the disc, and
some readers might consider it a 'must have' based on Wild's performance
of the Fantasy; I certainly do.

I should also point out that Wild has a second Schumann disc on Ivory
Classics 73001 that contains Papillons, the Piano Sonata No. 1, and
Waldszenen.  I reviewed his Waldszenen a few months ago and found it an
excellent and life-affirming interpretation just a little less rewarding
that my favored versions from Richter on Deutsche Grammophon and Elisso
Wirssaladze on Live Classics.  Both Ivory Classics discs can be acquired
from any one of the various sales sites on the Internet and from the
company's web site as well.  I'm glad to have these recordings and suggest
you give serious consideration to adding them to your record collection.

Don Satz
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