Schumann's 200th Birthday

[Kriton]

Worth a mention, since he was one of the first to publicly support not yet famous, a.k.a. unsung composers!

I decided to pick up a Schumann CD (with relatively unsung works - I'm stressing this, because I don't want to be thrown off the forum for talking about a not very unsung composer...) that was on my wishlist, the recent release on Ondine with both of his concert pieces for piano & orchestra and his beautiful Ghost Variations, also containing his etudes in canonic form in the Debussy transcription for 2 piano's. Just a word of warning, if any of you might ever consider buying the same CD: it's the most exaggerated late Schumann I know of. Very, very elegiac, everything played so unbelievably poetic and careful, that you almost get the impression the music 'stands still'. Not a really good introduction to those of us that don't really know their way around in late Schumann. A very nice CD for those who appreciate silence over music...