Album Notes

The Classical Music Guide wrote about this CD:

"Over the years, recorded accounts of Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze have been many............... But never have I been so touched by a recording of this work than by Adrian Aeschbacher."

The American Record Guide said:

"The pianist's mastery of the German and Austrian romantic style is assured and complete, not only in the Davidsbündler Dances, but in the six Moments Musicaux of Schubert. What perception and imagination he brings to these works!"

And the Audiophile Audition wrote:

"In the annals of great Schumann interpretation we recall Geza Anda, Artur Rubinstein, Yves Nat, Robert Casadesus, and Wilhelm Kempff, too often forgetting Adrian Aeschbacher, a pupil of Artur Schnabel whose excellent work with Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Furtwaengler remains precious to collectors and connoisseurs."

Though not well-known in the early 21st Century, those with long memories, and those who collect classic Deutsche Grammophon releases will know of the great Swiss pianist, Adrian Aeschbacher (1912-2002). His large discography includes works of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. During a very active concert career he performed together with such world-class figures as Fischer and Furtwaengler, among others.

KASP Records is pleased and honored to present the first release in many years of these recordings, originally made in the 1950's. But it is not primarily for historic reasons that these performances of Schumann and Schubert are once again being presented to the public. It is because they offer some of the very finest recordings ever made of these works.

As Aeschbacher's teacher, Artur Schnabel, was an unsurpassed Beethoven player, so Adrian Aeschbacher was a Schumann pianist par excellence. His Davidsbündlertänze shows a unique understanding of this huge work, and displays, with uncanny ability, the dramatic contrasts of Florestan, the firebrand, and the dreamy Eusebius, the opposing poles of Schumann's imagination.

And as a Schubert player Adrian Aeschbacher leaves nothing to be desired. His Moments Musicaux are simple, yet deep, intense, when necessary, but always idiomatic.