Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was the master of the miniature, the small form, the sketch characterising a person, a landscape, a mood or an idea. The piano cycles presented on this CD offer a wide variety of emotions, from the sublime calm of a summer evening, the intimacy of a dream, the soaring of young passion to the sinister atmosphere of a pitch-dark night. In Carnaval Op. 9 and Davidsbündlertänze Op. 6 Schumann presents characters from the Commedia dell’arte, each representing different characteristics and emotions. In the characters of Florestan and Eusebius Schumann finds his own innermost personae: the dreamlike Eusebius contra the passionate Florestan. The Kinderszenen is unique in the evocation of childhood and its contrasting emotions, the Waldszenen evoke nature’s realm, its natural, animal and human (the hunter..) inhabitants.
• According to International Piano, Yuan Sheng is China’s ‘premier interpreter of Bach’. Having studied in the US, including an intensive period with the legendary Bach interpreter Rosalyn Tureck, he has maintained an international performing career alongside his post as professor of piano at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. According to International Piano, Yuan Sheng is China’s ‘premier interpreter of Bach’. He is currently recording Bach’s complete keyboard works for Piano Classics. Yuan Sheng has a deep understanding and command of early pianos that has resulted in many well-received historically informed performances and recordings. In reviewing his all-Beethoven recital on an 1805 Kathönig piano, the Boston Intelligencer remarked that ‘Sheng had absorbed this music so thoroughly that a listener might easily have imagined the composer at the keyboard.’
• The present recording by Yuan Sheng is played on a Streicher fortepiano from 1846, its special sonorities and balance lending a uniquely authentic character to the performance.

Davidsbündlertänze Op.6 • Carnaval Op.9 • Kinderszenen Op.15 • Faschingsschwank aus Wien Op.26 • Waldszenen Op.82