NEWS
RAVE REVIEWS FOR SCHUMANN RECORDINGS
4th June 2009
In recent weeks several excellent reviews have appeared of Finghin's Schumann Volume 3 recording in publications such as the International Record Review, Diapason Magazine and the Guardian newspaper.
The most outstanding is a review in the June edition of International Record Review magazine:
This is very distinguished Schumann playing, of a type one rarely encounters these days, but of such quality that I have spent several days spread across a number of weeks trying to analyse why it should be so....
Schumann’s unique genius, coming when it did, being a combination of the poetic and the ebullient, the elated and the withdrawn, requires an artist fully cognisant of the dualities which lie behind the expression... Finghin Collins is one of those very gifted Irish pianists who have emerged in recent years and in this the third volume of his projected complete traversal of Schumann’s solo piano music, he gives outstanding accounts, especially of the Intermezzi, Op. 4, in the fourth of which he delivers interpretative playing of very high quality. In this version of the Etudes symphoniques (in which he incorporates the posthumous variations) he shows himself to be a very rare artist in that the fearsome technical difficulties are surmounted seemingly without effort, at the same time as the poetic nature of his interpretations place him in the highest class, alongside Perahia and Kempff. Where Collins scores so admirably is that his combination of those elements are placed wholly within a profound understanding of the underlying structural mastery of the studies... At times, it would be hard to imagine more sensitive pianism (such as the posthumous Variation IV) or more controlled virtuosity (as in the succeeding Variation VI, Allegro molto) or more technical-expressive virtuosity (as in the ninth Etude). This is deeply impressive playing throughout.
On the second disc, Collins tackles music that is often considered (by those who haven’t taken the trouble to investigate further) to show Schumann at a lower creative ebb. Collins brings to the Bunte Blätter (always a difficult work to hang together) such degrees of distinction that - apart from this artist’s at times quite amazing clarity and technical command (namely, No. 5) - his informed and musically sensitive playing is a joy to hear, a rare combination of almost classical purity and restraint allied to poetic playing of Romantic expressive elegance and power when called for. These qualities are also to be heard in abundance in Collins’s accounts of the Nachtstücke and the Faschingsschwank aus Wien, especially in the latter work, which is given with a superb combination (once more) of sensibility, thoughtfulness and inner vitality.
The recording quality throughout is admirable and, overall, this is a quite outstanding issue.
Diapason Magazine awarded the issue five of its trademark diapasons (matching the achievement of Volume 1 in 2006):
...We had such good memories of his first outing, notably of a Humoreske among the most extraordinary to have been released in a long time, that we were looking forward to see the young Irishman retake the reins. Because Finghin Collins, gifted with playing of perfect loyalty, playing of a precision which affords grandeur and refinement in equal measure, playing of a natural simplicity which rejects effects without getting in the way of expression, possesses the means of his ambitions. Over and above this pianistic baggage, he demonstrates again, in the well-known pages of the Abegg Variations, the Etudes Symphoniques and the Faschingsschwank aus Wien, that he has everything of a great Schumannien, with all that that entails - imagination without excess, taste and sound-world. In the less illustrious works, the Intermezzi Op. 4, the sublime Nachtstücke Op. 23 and the Bunte Blätter, Op. 99, he might seem marginally less communicative or transcendant than some of his great forbears. But globally, Finghin Collins is the first to offer such a level of stylistic unity in the context of a complete recording and the same quality of inner richness to such disparate works - that is what is worthy of praise.
ConcertoNet.com - a French review website - reviewed the CDs on June 1st:
...All these works benefit from his particular care: totally master of his instrument, Finghin Collins captures the climate of the music with a nobility of vision which marks out the greatest interpreters. This former pupil of Dominique Merlet produces a magnificent tone, at once profound and luminous, as well as lively playing without saturation or tension, which is invaluable in a work as complex as the Etudes Symphoniques. All the time cognisant of the clarity and continuity of the musical discourse, he renders the particular instability of this music with stupefying ease and with infinite variations of dynamic. In the youthful Abegg Variations as in the flamboyant Faschingsschwank aus Wien, his passion is truly communicative and never compromises the musicality. Here is without any doubt a name to remember and a double album to which one will return again and again.
From the Guardian newspaper, May 22nd, with four stars:
Three years ago, the Irish pianist Finghin Collins launched Claves's survey of Schumann's complete piano music with a superb pair of discs that showed he had the instincts and technique to become an outstanding Schumann interpreter. If Collins's second contribution to the series isn't quite as remarkable, it still contains playing of real class and perception. The major work is the Etudes Symphoniques, into which Collins integrates the five "posthumous" variations omitted from the first published edition of the score, and which receive perhaps the most complete performance here, though the account of Schumann's Op 1, the Abegg Variations, is delivered with a light touch, too... his dashing way with Faschingsschwank aus Wien is hard to resist.
In Dublin, the Irish Times reviewed the CDs briefly on April 24th, also awarding them four stars:
...The longer works - the Etudes Symphoniques (which includes the posthumous variations) and the Bunte Blätter - find Collins on top form, noble and touching, as do the Nachtstücke and the fully indulged carnivalesque contrasts of Faschingsschwank aus Wien.
Further reviews will be posted as they appear. To find out more about the CDs click here.
