United Kingdom R. Schumann: Llŷr Williams (piano). Wigmore Corridor, London, 12.1.2024. (CC)
R. Schumann – Papillons, Op.2 (1830/31); Nachtstücke, Op.23 (1839-40); Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op.26 (1839/40).
This was an album launch occasion on the Wigmore Corridor: Welsh pianist Llŷr Williams’s new all-Schumann twofer comes out his very day on Signum Information. Along with the above works, it additionally contains the Fantasie, Op.17, the Humoreske, Op.20 and Davidbündlertänze, Op.6. A report signing was held after the live performance.
Llŷr Williams is one among a tranche of gifted pianists working from the UK nowadays. Having heard each the discs and the live performance – and each are of the best customary – skilled dwell, he has simply that contact extra authority. What’s extra, Williams has the proper grasp of the Wigmore’s difficult acoustic, providing a full dynamic spectrum with out over-projecting. His vary of keyboard color is extraordinary, and I ponder if he thinks orchestrally: there was no lacking the two-horn fanfare figures in direction of the top of the finale of Papillons.
Representing early Schumann, Papillons (Butterflies) was a response to Flegeljahre (Fledgeling Years) by ‘Jean-Paul’ (J. P. F. Richter); Schumann recreates a masked ball that seems as a part of the story. The story goes that Schumann would improvise dances he imagines on the ball; and finally he made a range that kinds Papillons. The rhythmic play of No.6 was brilliantly accomplished by Williams. From the opening, it was the cleanliness of Williams’s supply that impressed. His articulation is ideal, and all through the recital it grew to become clear he has thought lengthy and arduous about pedalling. Technically, all the pieces is there, and fully on the service of the music: left-hand spreads have been completely calibrated and by no means as soon as interrupted the course of the music. From scintillating passagework to deeply Romanic introspection (the ‘semplice’ of the seventh motion), this was a superb efficiency.
From swashbuckling youth to inside musings: the Nachtstücke of 1839/40. Written lower than a decade later, that is the flip facet of Schumann’s persona. The primary is marked ‘Mehr langsam, oft zurückhaltend (Trauerzug)’, and Williams’s tempo felt good. The trudge of chords may be very of Schumann (one thinks maybe, in a distinct setting, of the primary of the Op.21 Noveletten). Williams created the proper sense of dissolution on the finish. No lacking the ‘marked’ side of the second, ’Markirt und lebhaft’ (‘Markirt’ is right in accordance with the rating and used within the CD booklet to the accompanying launch; it gave the impression to be ‘corrected’ to ‘Martkiert’ within the Wigmore Corridor freesheet). Some virtuoso enjoying right here, for positive, but in addition a stunning carillon reference hat had to this point eluded me in my expertise of those items. Single traces spoke volumes, whereas lyrical themes sang. One of many hardest issues to do in piano enjoying is to play merely (‘Einfach’); that is exactly what Schumann asks for within the fourth and ultimate Nachtstück, and Williams was compelling right here. Managing cantabile over rolled chords just isn’t simple, both, and Williams created essentially the most magical impact.
Then, to ‘the opposite Carnival’: Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op.26 (the title means ‘Carnival Jest from Vienna’). That is one among Schumann’s very most interesting piano works, and but I can rely the variety of occasions I’ve heard it dwell on the fingers of 1 hand. It famously holds a citation from the Marseillaise in its first motion. Apparently, dwell it felt only a contact extra ebullience would have sealed the deal; and the recording really, to my ears, offers that (the expectation could be the reverse). Williams is excellent at pinpointing the contrasts in Schumann’s music by characterising the extra resolute passages with pinpoint assault in opposition to way more fluid cantabile. An opposition that appeared significantly clear on this first motion. No lacking the Marseillaise (and naturally, it’s not the well-known French tune’s solely look in Schumann, because it turns up once more within the track Die beiden Grenadiere); it had been adopted because the French nationwide anthem in 1795, and was written comparatively not too long ago (for Schumann, that’s) in 1792, paradoxically in Strasbourg, by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836). Whereas the melody’s look could be troublesome to overlook, Schumann integrates it splendidly, and Williams offered it completely. The primary be aware of the Romanze stabbed on the coronary heart in a means it doesn’t fairly do on the recording. This can be a brief motion, however it’s expansive in expression, and Williams’s efficiency was mesmeric. A tiny Scherzino was pure pleasure, hopping about properly (the themes are slightly angular). Of the 5 actions, it’s the fourth that’s arguably essentially the most well-known, an Intermezzo stuffed with turbulence (its left-hand agitation appears to hyperlink to the opening of the Op.17 Fantasie, which Williams additionally included in his Signum launch). The finale’s brilliant, blazing opening was excellent, chattering in its exercise, however not within the slightest bit mechanical. So clear and even, stuffed with contrasts, this was the proper exemplar of what makes Williams’s Schumann so superb.
Williams is likely one of the few pianists who’re equally at residence in virtuoso and in lyrical writing, and whose music may higher exhibit this than Schumann’s?
By the way, those that observe Williams’s profession may know a efficiency of Schumann’s Liederkreis with Sir Bryn Terfel (DG’s Bryn Terfel: The Verbier Recital) given on July 20, 2011.
A superb recital.
Colin Clarke
Llŷr Williams appeared on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune programme on January 11, 2024, discussing this launch: the programme is at present freely obtainable through BBC Sounds.
