Arcadi Volodos: Schubert piano sonata D850, Schumann Kinderszenen op15 – playfulness, longing and elegance

(Sony)
The pianist binds Schubert’s D850 with Schumann’s Kinderszenen with playing of warmth and crystalline technique

Arcadi Volodos records infrequently, making each album something of an event. The two works here, both staples of the Romantic piano repertory, couldn’t be more different, and yet he manages to bind them together, bringing elasticity and a dash of fantasy to Schubert’s D major sonata, D850 while investing Schumann’s evergreen Kinderszenen with a dose of Schubertian longing.

In the sonata’s opening Allegro vivace, he’s far less headstrong than, for example, Alfred Brendel or Radu Lupu, but notably more flexible – daringly so at times. Measured phrases are shaded with supple rubato, the line enlivened with tiny dynamic emphases. The expressive slow movement, laced with musical question marks, exudes a calm benevolence. Volodos can be playful, too, with a mischievous take on the disorderly scherzo and a dainty finale that borders on the coquettish.