Schumann - Piano Concerto [Kissin/Davis-London Symphony Orchestra]
Kissin has recorded this work before with Giulini, i haven't heard that performance, this newer one is coupled with Mozart, the Schumann work is quite possibly the best thing he ever composed, it started out as a one movement Fantasy, and was expanded at the request of his Wife, and he composed two more movements to make it into a Piano Concerto, the 'fantasy-ness' of the Concerto still remains, and influenced Grieg to some degree in composing his own Piano Concerto just over 20 years later [both are in A Minor for example], it's good to hear this work again, and i never tire from listening to it.
Evgeny Kissin is Russian, born in 1971, he's now 40, he has recorded extensively for RCA, and now i guess he's at EMI as an Artist, the front cover photography [by Sasha Gusov] is nice and pleasing, showing Kissin in a thoughtful reflective mood, the lettering is nice enough, but his surname is splashed too large across the front, many times the size of the great Composers he represents.
