Available as digital download only
The six Bilder aus Osten rank alongside the ten Ballszenen among the most precious music for piano four-hands ever to flow from Robert Schumann's pen. With a total duration of around fifty minutes, these works could easily have fit on a CD, aside from perhaps one additional piece, but this new release appears to be part of a new trend: that of (exclusively) digital downloads in EP or 'Extended Play' format. In times past, this term was associated with the 45 rpm gramophone record.
The six impromptus that together Bilder aus Osten comprise have, as the title suggests, a distinctly exotic flavor, drawing inspiration from tales of the pranks and exploits of the Arab rogue Abu Seid. Schumann read of his adventures in Friedrich Rückert's rather liberal translation: The Transformations of Abu Seid of Serug.
Beatrice Rana and Yannick Nézet-Séguin have known each other for a long time, and not only in their respective roles as pianist and conductor of, among others, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. They also perform regularly as a piano duo, as in the summer of 2022 during the Baden-Baden music festival, with works by Ravel, Schumann, Brahms and Schubert, released on DVD by EuroArts.
Also in Bilder this occasional duo excels at imaginative atmosphere-painting and Nézet-Séguin once again demonstrates that an active conducting career need not interfere with practicing at the piano. Still, it's a shame that it remains at this Bilder has remained.
