Pianist
Alexandra Dariescu
has been around for some years, looking, one supposes, for her big break. With this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller charts in the summer of that year, she may have found it.
Clara Schumann
's
Piano Concerto in D minor, Op. 7
, premiered two weeks before her 16th birthday, has been recorded several times, but
Dariescu
is perhaps the first to capture its characteristic flavor. That flavor owes little to
Robert Schumann
; his contributions to the orchestration of the finale are often stressed, but, in fact,
Clara
discarded most of them when she reworked her music as a full-scale concerto. Her model is not
but
Chopin
, with big chords setting up a virtuoso entrance of the soloist. However, her treatment is subtler than
's, with the piano entering the conversation in the middle of a line, as it were, and gradually taking over the discourse as the movement proceeds. The slow movement, where the orchestra falls silent, may have influenced both
Tchaikovsky
and
Brahms
.
and the
Philharmonia Orchestra
under conductor
Tianyi Lu
capture a sense of youthful exuberance in
's concerto, something that
was not really about.
, apparently for the first time, makes the intelligent choice of
Grieg
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
, for a pairing with the
concerto; it is usually paired with
's, with which it has less to do.
's pentatonic slow movement also features a prominent cello part, and here again, all involved achieve a deep lyricism that stands apart from the numerous recordings of this concerto. A standout recording that should influence future takes on
's only concerto. ~ James Manheim