Clifford Curzon - Schumann, Schubert: Piano Works (2000) CD-Rip

Here’s an unexpected and most welcome entry in Decca’s Legendary Performances series. Clifford Curzon was a card-carrying perfectionist who broached recording with the enthusiasm of a man on his way to the gallows. Yet time has been good to his small discography. You won’t find heartstopping dynamic surges in Curzon’s 1954 Schumann C Major Fantasie, but you’ll hear beautifully proportioned lines that never fail to sing, plus sturdy mono engineering that does full justice to Curzon’s ravishing palette of color and nuance. The pianist’s focused delicacy throughout Kinderszenen contrasts to Gieseking’s cool watercolors and Horowitz’s garish, broad brushstrokes, among notable mono versions. Curzon’s charged, disciplined Schubert Wanderer Fantasy, recorded in 1949, was given a noisier but more vivid transfer in Philips Great Pianists series. Like the Philips edition, Decca’s new transfer is pitched almost a quartertone flat. No matter. Get this disc for the Schumann selections, and for Ray Minshull’s succinct, scene setting notes. A very special release.