Here's the perfect musical gift: a new solo CD of music by Schumann from the accomplished pianist Anthea Fry. Wonderfully elegant and refined performances of Kinderszenen, Papillons and Waldszenen: captivating music played with grace and style.
Paul Vaughan - Dec 99
Anthea Fry often includes Schumann in her recitals and here is a CD devoted entirely to his works. The Arabesque Op18 (1838), Kinderszenen Op5 (1838), Papillons Op2 (1832) and Waldszenen Op82 (1849). Of these only the Arabesque is a more extended piece in rondo-form, the others being loosely organised cycles of short pieces, a form which Schumann made so completely his own with writing which was always thoroughly idiomatic for the instrument and in which the virtuoso element never got the better of his poetic ideas. This is exactly what Anthea Fry conveys with her elegant, fluid playing - if anything, a little too reticent at times though always capturing the poetic character of each individual miniature. She brings her well balanced and taseteful recital to a close with the later Waldszenen which were inspired by romantic poems and of which the "Bird as Prophet" is perhaps the best loved.
