Martin Helmchen - Schumann: Novelleten & Gesänge der Frühe - Gramophone

Clara Schumann’s three Soirées musicales also benefit from Helmchen’s vividly detailed and stylistically spot-on treatments. His controlled soft playing creates an appropriately desolate yet oddly serene sound world in Robert Schumann’s late Gesänge der Frühe, from No 1’s disembodied chorale-like moments and No 2’s linear independence to the vocal quality of No 5’s carefully drawn climaxes. Let’s hope that Helmchen and his vintage Bechstein are destined for further rewarding musical ventures.