Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Alexander Lonquich: Robert Schumann / Heinz Hollinger

130

Alexander Lonquich: Robert Schumann / Heinz Hollinger

Alexander Lonquich: Robert Schumann / Heinz Hollinger
Pianist Alexander Lonquich's previous ECM recordings, Plainte Calme (2002) and Gideon Lewensohn: Odradek (2001), split attention between the near-new and the new, addressing Les Six's impressionism on the former, versus 21st Century Israeli realism on the latter. On Robert Schumann / Heinz Hollinger, Lonquich splits the difference between Schumann's eight-movement Kreisleriana (Op. 16, 1838), and Swiss oboist/composer Holliger's seven-movement Partita (1999). This match is a typical stylistic and chronological mash-up of the ECM Records zeitgeist.

Lonquich's Schumann is well-measured, with the Romantic ethos typified by the composer during the early part of his composing career. More expansive than his Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana stands as the piano monument to Schumann. Lonquich captures the composer's spirit perfectly, beautifully engineered and sonically captured. The song cycle is played dynamically, reflecting Schumann's perceived limitations of the keyboard at the time. At once blissful and anxious Kreisleriana (dedicated by the composer to Chopin) encompasses all that is good in Romantic consonance.

Schumann's angst toward the keyboard's limitations remained spiritually vibrant, finding its way into Heniz Holliger's 1999 Partita (dedicated to pianist Andras Schiff). Hollinger immediately dispenses with Schumann's Romantic consonance in favor of a more modern approach, owing more to Cecil Taylor than Bill Evans. The Partita is abrupt, and often near angry in its thundering pronouncements. Holliger claims a Schumann influence, but the composer refracts that influence through a much different prism. Lonquich's performance is both compelling and intense, as is the sonic capture: piano music not for the faint of heart.

Track Listing

Robert Schumann: Kreisleriana; Heinz Hollinger: Partita.

Personnel

Alexander Lonquich: piano.

Album information

Title: Robert Schumann / Heinz Hollinger | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: ECM Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.