Benjamin Grosvenor - Schumann & Brahms

Released 17th March 2023

The acclaimed British pianist, Benjamin Grosvenor, still only 30 and yet a well-established favourite of critics and audiences around the globe, takes Robert Schumanns haunting Kreisleriana as his starting point in his new album, Schumann & Brahms. This eight-movement work portrays the mercurial personality of the fictional Johannes Kreisler, created by E. T. A. Hoffmann: Kreislers highs and lows, and his dreamy nature, clearly mirror Schumanns own tragic manic-depressive tendencies. Grosvenor responds to the composers autobiographical honesty with playing of sublime tenderness, dazzling variety, and imaginative empathy.

He accompanies the work with the melancholic Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann by Schumanns beloved wife Clara (who, incidentally, stated that she was much disturbed by the visions conjured up in Kreisleriana). Further kaleidoscopic variety is provided by Roberts Blumenstc