Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze and other Piano Works

Composed by Robert Schumann

Chandos / CHAN10874

Recorded August 2015

'Pianistically alone, Cooper commands a dynamic and colouristic range beyond the reach of most pianists, male or female. Likewise her multi-faceted and thrilling grasp of rhythm. She understands that musical, like verbal, speech acquires eloquence and continuity through the close, asymmetrical juxtaposition of extreme but varied contrasts - as in any polysyllabic word. Never was this truer than in Schumann, whose own juxtaposition of emotional-psychological extremes requires a maximum of characterisation with a minimum of evidence - the art that conceals art. Cooper’s gifts in this department are unmistakable even before she reaches the end of the first, brief piece in the Davidsbündlertänze. And as she begins, so she continues. Every piece in this recital is a study in portraiture worthy of Schumann's beloved ETA Hoffman. Variety and organic momentum (structure, in short, in a sea of diversity) go hand in hand.'

Jeremy Siepmann, BBC Music Magazine, September 2015