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Analekta5
Schumann: Kreisleriana & Geistervariationen – Widmann: Elf Humoresken
Aaron Pilsan, piano
Analekta, 2023
Austrian pianist Aaron Pilsan shows imaginative and intense pianism, as well as remarkable maturity despite his young age. Kreisleriana is interpreted with an appropriate inner turmoil. One of Schumann’s most complex works, the piece is played with incredible emotional variation. The contrast between the soul of Florestano and that of Eusebius, the eternal struggle between reason and feeling, is audible from the beginning. Piece No. 5, Sehr lebhaft, is emblematic of Schumannian poetics: endowed with an enormous emotional depth that cannot emerge in all its disruptive force until the climax, which in this case immediately precedes the recapitulation. In Schumann, though, these moments are often short, and seem suffocated. Pilsan masterfully interprets this continuous poetic yearning, immersing himself in this drama without ever being submerged by it. Kreisleriana’s seventh movement, Sehr rasch, opens with a tormented virtuosity that flows into contemplative choral writing.
The album continues with Joerg Widmann’s Elf Humoresken. This contemporary writing has somewhat of an affinity with Schumannian writing. In Humoreske No. 1, for example, there is a small fragment that resembles the ending that Schumann inserts in Symphonic Etudes Op. 13. Apparently illogical, these sections perfectly express the wild creative freedom that is common to these two composers. In Humoreske No. 2, we move from dark and dramatic contemporary atmospheres to something more reminiscent of a Chopin nocturne. The Humoreske alternates moments of waltz with expressionism.
The Geistervariationen, Schumann’s last work, is a true masterpiece of intimacy and tenderness. Pilsan plays with great expressive measure, a testament to his musical maturity.
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Francais (French)
