Schumann complete piano music, Jorg Demus

[Sean]

Fine set on 13 CDs, Demus's understanding of the paroxysmal, often Wagneranly manic, shifting and intuitive writing is really extraordinary, an absolute expertise and depth insight into a visceral early romantic idiom, a visionary and sustained achievement; his pedal work and lurching, demonic phrasing especially in the faster passages must have taken great preparation and is most impressive throughout the set; the recording is good, apart from a couple of works where the sound is a little more dated and crumbly. The inspiration in these works remained at an extraordinary level throughout and there's great nourishment here...

[Todd]

If only the set were as good as you describe.  Demus does do fine in some lesser works, but in the big name works he's simply no match for, say, Richter, Gieseking, Kempff, Ashkenazy (older recordings), Cortot, and a good number of other pianists.  You are the first person I've come across who has heaped this kind of praise on Demus. 

[Sean]

Hi Todd, Demus probably doesn't have the vision and architecture of the names you mention in the more famous pieces but his attention to detail and small scale phrasing is absolutely amazing, and in many cases must have involved a huge amount of forethought and execution. And the homogeneity of Schumann's solo piano output, both within works and the whole corpus, does raise questions over why the more famous pieces have become famous: they're all at a fine standard of inspiration, works to return to many times, fabulously luxurious mozaics. I can understand though why Demus was also known as a great accompanist, for instance in Winterrise with Fischer-Dieskau of course, cultivating an understated, perhaps too smooth and even self-effacing tone.

[Don]

If only the set were as good as you describe.  Demus does do fine in some lesser works, but in the big name works he's simply no match for, say, Richter, Gieseking, Kempff, Ashkenazy (older recordings), Cortot, and a good number of other pianists.  You are the first person I've come across who has heaped this kind of praise on Demus. 

Demus likely has some relatives who also heap praise on his Schumann.  Personally, I have always enjoyed his set but find nothing particularly compelling about his interpretations; further, the sound quality is rather poor for the recording dates.