Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6

“Uchida shows herself not only fully up to Schumann's immense demands technically, but she is also deeply sympathetic to the fierce dislocations in his personality...With such insights from her both on the piano and verbally, this makes a most appealing pair of discs.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 *****

“This is the playing of a real 'master' musician who carries every iota of beauty, detail, intelligence and subtlety through to the ultimate degree...The Fantasie is as genuinely passionate as I've ever heard it...she proves that virtuosity is just a means to a musical end” Classic FM Magazine, December 2010 *****

“The quality she brings is the one they most need – an overarching concentration that stops them splintering apart, while maintaining a sense of poetry and spontaneity...the music’s Janus-faced personality is enmeshed in almost every bar, to thrilling effect in Uchida’s magisterial performance, which exults in Schumann’s temperamental extremes while also harmonising them.” Financial Times, 25th September 2010 *****

“In an interview with James Jolly, it is clear how passionate [Uchida] is about the composer (this fascinating conversation comes on a companion CD in the "Prestige Edition")...Her passionate verbal advocacy is translated into the equally compelling ardour of her performances of these two works...this has Gramophone Award-winner written all over it.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2010

“...revelatory and supremely satisfying...Her account of the great C major Fantasie (also recorded under studio conditions at Snape Maltings) sits alongside some of the greatest committed to disc — Schumann the poet and virtuoso evoked in perfect balance” Sunday Times, 3rd October 2010 *****

“Schumann is obviously a composer with whom she feels a special affinity, and to whose music she brings a whole suite of special qualities...She naturally inclines towards the more introspective side of Schumann rather than his ebullient, extrovert alter ego, and infuses the more lyrical parts of the cycle with warmth and expressive generosity” The Guardian, 16th September 2010 ****

“This seizes you by the scruff of the neck within seconds. Uchida...find[s] a different colour for every one of the 18 pieces. The coda to No13 is the most astonishing example of pianistic virtuosity I’ve heard in years.” The Telegraph, 5th October 2010 *****

“The formal clarity of Hewitt's playing, together with the crispness of her articulation, gets her a long way in the sonata, whose technical demands are not to be underestimated...There's still an impressive sheen to everything Hewitt does” The Guardian, 25th November 2010 ****

“Hewitt conveys with intensity and brilliance the mounting tension, rapture and visceral drive that Schumann’s markings are surely meant to encourage...throughout the set Hewitt’s palette of colour is chosen with the utmost discretion and aptness.” The Telegraph, 26th November 2010 *****

“Her awareness of counterpoint and her skill at putting it across suits Schumann's colourfully woven textures to perfection. Davidsbündlertänze benefits from fine-pointed voicing, and her sense of light, springing rhythm keeps the élan flying, stopping the music from ever getting too bogged down” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2010 *****

“Everything is played as if in the heat of first inspiration, a reflection, perhaps, of a recreative richness mirroring Hewitt's encompassing and versatile repertoire. Few pianists are so brilliantly alive to every passing fancy and whimsicality. And again, few performances could be less studio-bound, more fleet, hallucinatory and above all more deeply imaginative.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2010

“Stephen Hough is on superlative form on this exceptionally fine disc. Schumann’s Fantasy, one of the masterpieces of early Romanticism, is far from easy to bring off, technically and — even more — interpretatively, not least the magnificent yet elusive opening movement, but Hough’s sense of both large-scale form and intimate detail is unerring. The huge spread of the scherzo's chords has no terrors for him, and the adagio’s deep communings are beautifully realised. No less satisfying is his account of the Davidsbündler dances, that subtle monument to Schumann’s rhythmic and harmonic originality.” Sunday Times, 12th July 2009 ****

“Full of mercurial imagination and multifaceted storytelling. Hough's Schumann is an absolute treat. He can infuse even a single sustained chord with a wealth of meanings. Remarkable.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2009 *****

“Here is a pianist who explores the inner recesses of Schumann's glowing romanticism with a delicate emotional fervour very much his own. Finely recorded, this most elegant and stylish pianist leaves you both troubled and elated as he captures to the hilt the very essence of a composer who once confessed "Sometimes I think I could sing myself to death".” Gramophone Magazine, September 2009

“The Fantasy's quasi-improvisatory flourishes and blossoming lyricism draw an exhilarating response; the Appassionata moves fast, characterised by exciting agility and an impressive grasp of the way tempo relationships and dramatic intensity can be interconnected. ...the disc as a whole persuades me that here is a pianist from whom we'll be hearing a lot more.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2004 ****

“Made me fall in love with this music all over again. And there could scarcely be higher praise than that” Gramophone Magazine

“Zhu Xiao-Mei produces some wonderfully intimate moments in the more reflective sections of these two works, but tends to force the tone when the textures become more full-blown.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 ***

“There is much that is distinctive and memorable on this disc and I recommend it highly. The recorded sound is as natural as the playing, and the booklet features an interview in which Zhu proves to be as eloquent with words as she is with her fingers” International Record Review, September 2012