Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze; Sonata in G minor; Kinderszenen - Angela Hewitt - review

Angela Hewitt's previous Schumann disc for Hyperion, released three years ago, coupled the first of his piano sonatas, in F sharp minor, with the Humoresque. This time she juxtaposes the second sonata with Davidsbündlertänze, perhaps the most elusive of Schumann's large-scale cycles, and once again it's the account of the classically proportioned sonata that is the more impressive of the two performances. The formal clarity of Hewitt's playing, together with the crispness of her articulation, gets her a long way in the sonata, whose technical demands are not to be underestimated. But in Davidsbündler, where much more fantasy is required and the phrasing needs to be more instinctive, the results are far less convincing. There's still an impressive sheen to everything Hewitt does, but the sharp mood-swings in the cycle, with its individual movements identified with Florestan and Eusebius, the imaginary characters who embodied the extravert and introvert sides of Schumann's personality, just never seem to be defined clearly enough.