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I don't know about the provenance of the recordings, but reporting in, midway through the fourth disk, no pops or clicks have appeared yet to these ears….
I'm happy to say that the sound, while not sparkling DDD, is certainly not as 'execrable' as one might expect: not nearly as bad as that of the Yves Nat Schumann set on EMI. The quality of reproduction is certainly better than much of Richter's live stuff, let alone historical recordings. Also, a matter of personal taste, the original recordings weren't made in an overly reverberant venue (as many of Hyperion's seem to be, for instance) and I like that.
Speaking of Richter, while I wouldn't put Demus' playing in the realm of the very top Schumannists, he is always musical, often passionate and appropriately off-kilter in this music. It's certainly not merely pretty Schumann, nor is his playing self-indulgent. He does bug me from time to time (some distracting metric plasticity here, some prosaic moments there) and after all, especially in the major pieces there is unfairly superb competition on record. But overall Demus serves as an excellent guide through these compositions, and sometimes provides magic.
And you don't buy this set for its audio splendor, or to throw away your Richter and Argerich, but for the repertoire. If you love Schumann's piano music as I do, the interest is in hearing compositions, often lesser works, that are not often recorded. For instance, the Op. 5 Impromptus are new to me: quite Schubertian, and while Schumann's experimentation is not as successful here as in the more famous works, works such as this provide context for the masterpieces, a setting for his gems you might say.
Even Gesange der Fruhe, Op. 133, again not S's best work, are new to me and similarly interesting, though perhaps a little saddening too, given the composer's mental state…
So in sum, IMHO the recording is OK, the playing is good, and the repertoire – well, it is the complete piano works of Robert Schumann. If having that for reference on your shelf interests you, it is available for a pittance.
Daniel Levenstein
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