On track: Innocence and experience

A pair of Deutsche Grammophon releases reveals two of the label's premier pianists presenting concept recitals.

Lang Lang's Memory consists of pieces he played or heard as a child. Mozart's joyous K 330 Sonata has a first movement that is all sense and sensibility in its articulation and a Finale, propelled by a boisterous bass line.

The 13 portraits of Schumann's Kinderszenen come across as miniature tone-poems thanks to Christian Leins' sympathetic production. But occasionally the pianist imposes on the work's essential innocence. Should Important Event be so brutally pompous or The Poet Speaks quite so laid-back? I think not.

A youthful self-indulgence mars Chopin's B minor Sonata and this highly theatrical delivery will not win me over from other treasured recordings. The consistent compromising of structure for coloristic effect is just one irritation.

A generous bonus CD with an encore of Horovitz's transcription of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody, would no doubt cause a minor riot of approval in the concert hall. On disc, in a domestic setting, it just seems loud.

Helene Grimaud's Reflection is a three-tiered tribute to the Schumanns and Brahms.

Robert Schumann's Concerto, with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Esa-Pekka Salonen, is daunting in its full-on emotionalism, almost unbearably so when Grimaud duets with the woodwind in the first movement. Salonen asserts a firm grip in a Finale of unexpected gravity.

Grimaud is not one to mince notes; the first movement cadenza is brilliantly sustained, from the opening rubato weave to chordal passages of almost orchestral power.

The first and last of three Clara Schumann songs, driven by precipitous dynamic shifts, almost frighten in their intensity, although lyricism rules when Grimaud and von Otter tackle Warum willst du andre fragen.

Truls Mork and pianist Grimaud are lively sparring partners for Brahms' First Cello Sonata.

All is song in the first movement; surging textures that sometimes weighed down the songs, are bracingly right. The minuet dances blithely, its trio filled with yearning; the Finale is a joust of flexing, contrapuntal muscles.

Grimaud rounds the disc off with the two Brahms Rhapsodies of Opus 79, forging an unexpected road from Schumann to Rachmaninov.

* Lang Lang, Memory (Deutsche Grammophon 477 5976)

Helene Grimaud, Reflection (Deutsche Grammophon 477 5719)