Ingrid Fliter & SCO - Schumann & Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos - Irish Times

There's something really invigorating about Argentinian pianist Ingrid Fliter's approach to these two staples of the 19th-century romantic piano repertoire.

It's not so much a matter of speed as an outcome of the air of spontaneity she likes to create. And that sense of slight unpredictability is enhanced by the lightness and transparency that Spanish conductor Antonio Méndez encourages from Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The effect is of a chamber music-like responsiveness in an orchestral context. Mendelssohn wrote his concerto in 1831, Schumann completed his in 1845. Here they are separated by the deft watery fantasy of Mendelssohn's Fair Melusine Overture of 1833.