Jozef De Beenhouwer - Clara Schumann: Piano Transcriptions

Continuing MDG's exploration of Clara Schumann's works, Josef De Beenhouwer offers a special gift on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of her birth: a CD including numerous recording premieres from this famous pianist�s extensive transcription oeuvre.He not only honours her compositional talent but also spotlights works with which she very deliberately and intensively occupied herself � and in the process veryattractively nuances our picture of the musical Schumann family.The focus is formed by selected songs by Robert Schumann. Thirty transcriptions in all were published during Clara�s lifetime, and eleven others were discovered and edited only a few years ago. De Beenhouwer�s choices drawing on both sources impressively demonstrate how skillfully Clara integrated the voice part into Robert�s piano parts, which often are quite complicated.Two genuine finds round off this intelligently designed program: an andante from the Three Diversions by William Sterndale Bennett, a composer completely unknown in Germany, and the album page on �Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott� by Clara Wieck composed when she was just nineteen years old make us eager for more � above all, when these works are so lovingly presented as they are here by Josef DeBeenhouwer on this Super Audio CD meticulously recorded in a natural room atmosphere.