On 30 May 1999 András Schiff gave a recital devoted to Robert Schumann at the Tonhalle in Zürich, and this two-disc set documents the whole evening. The programme was unusual. Schiff chose three large works written between 1836 and 1838, pieces that BBC Music Magazine noted are sometimes considered poor relations of Kreisleriana. Humoreske op. 20, the eight Noveletten op. 21 and the F minor Sonata op. 14 add up to about an hour and three quarters of music, heard with the momentum of a single concert.
The recording was produced by Manfred Eicher and engineered by Stephan Schellmann, and it keeps the hall and a little of the applause. The first disc holds the Humoreske and the first four Noveletten. The second disc continues with the remaining four pieces and the sonata, then closes with the fourth of the Nachtstücke op. 23, Schiff's only encore. The booklet essay is by Martin Meyer, and the cover photograph by Péter Nádas.
The Humoreske is notoriously episodic, a string of contrasting ideas that can easily fall apart. Schiff holds it together through its lyrical thread, keeping the fast passages light and the pedalling clear so the textures stay open. The Noveletten unfold as a sequence of stories with a clear narrative direction, from the first, marked Markiert und kräftig, to the ten-minute eighth. Schumann once called the sonata a "Concert sans orchestre". Schiff plays its first movement in the 1836 version, and the variations on an Andantino by Clara Wieck become the slow heart of the recital.
The critics responded warmly. In the San Francisco Chronicle Joshua Kosman wrote that "this dazzling two-disc live set establishes Schiff as a leading interpreter of this music". Jessica Duchen in BBC Music Magazine praised the sense of occasion and the sound quality, and ended her review with "An absolute winner". Alfred Beaujean in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung set it beside Maurizio Pollini's Schumann recording of the same period, which he found cooler, and heard Schiff's live reading as gripping in every phase.
Issued on ECM New Series in 2002 as a double CD, ECM New Series 1806/07, with Meyer's booklet note in German, English and French.
