Of the eight works that Nicholas Daniel and Julius Drake play on this disc – seven by Robert Schumann and one by his wife, Clara – only Robert’s Drei Romanzen Op 94 were originally intended for oboe and piano. But as Stephen Johnson suggests in his typically absorbing sleeve notes: “Far from being offended by the arrangements … [Schumann] would almost certainly have been delighted by them.”
Daniel himself is responsible for the arrangement of Clara’s violin and piano Drei Romanzen Op 22, which he also plays, and for Robert’s Fantasiestücke Op 73, better known in the version with clarinet. But perhaps the most unexpected pieces here are the Three Duos, which turn out to be transcriptions of pieces from the Six Canonic Studies Op 56 and the Three Sketches Op 58, which Schumann composed in 1845 for the fashionable pedal piano.
But it’s a measure of the care and sensitivity that Daniel and Drake bring to everything they play that there is never any sense of awkwardness or falseness. Schumann’s lyricism flows beautifully from Daniel’s oboe in every phrase – and even in works such as the Adagio and Allegro Op 70, originally written for horn but also frequently played, like the Pieces in Folk Character Op 102, as a cello piece – and the changes of register never jar. This duo are by no means the first to assemble a disc of Schumann’s music for oboe – most famously there’s a collection on Philips from the great Heinz Holliger, partnered by Alfred Brendel, no less – but this one is pure delight from first note to last.
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