Physical buyers of the album will get reflections from
Tiffany Poon about "feeling all the feels" and other similarly general concepts (the diaries, apparently, are hers rather than
Schumann's), but this young pianist turns out to have a real feel for
Schumann, and this release, her first on the
PentaTone label, promises much. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of available recordings of the three
Schumann works here, but
Poon succeeds in standing out from the crowd. The most remarkable performance of all is one of the most popular works,
Kinderszenen, Op. 15, and within that, one can sample the single most beloved
Scene of Childhood,
Träumerei, Op. 15/7.
Poon, in a world full of heavily rubato-laden interpretations of these pieces, takes
Robert Schumann's advice to
Clara to heart and plays them not far from fixed tempos, but there is nothing dispassionate about her performance, which makes a great deal out of very small gestures. Later in the program, which builds in intensity as it proceeds,
Poon unleashes some drama in the
Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, works that are close to
Schumann's heart and expressive of his fantasy life. Even here, everything is under perfect control. It has been a very long time since such freshly conceived and brilliantly executed
Schumann has graced CD players and hard drives, and audiences responded by placing this album on classical best-seller lists in early 2024. ~ James Manheim
