Ingrid Fliter & SCO - Schumann & Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos - American Record Guide

These two concertos make good partners in that both present the pianist with endless arpeggios, yet their magic lies in their melody lines. And Ingrid Fliter is the right pianist to make the melodies sing while making the arpeggios seem as sparkling and buoyant as a bright spring day!

Fliter gives all movements in both concertos a distinct forward flow, without ever rushing in the slow movements. Perhaps most illustrative of her overall style is II of the Schumann. While her approach is traditionally romantic, her use of rubato is very much her own—her stamp of identity. Some will like it; some won’t. I find it very mature, extremely beautiful, and expressive almost in a rhetorical sense, as if she is delivering the lines reminiscent of a person who speaks with a lyrical rhythm. She also has the gift of weighting those endless arpeggios so that the rhythm of all the phrases makes sense (see my review of Glazounov’s String Quintet in this issue for an example of just the opposite). She also articulates those flurries of notes so that their sparkling clarity enhance the melody. In addition, she and Antonio Mendez are hand-inglove partners. Together they make both works truly infectious.