I don’t usually like to go out on a limb like this, but Acoustic Revive’s disc of Vladimir Tropp playing Robert Schumann may very well be one of the greatest piano recordings I have ever heard.
Mind you that I’ve sampled the Symphonic Etudes by the likes of Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Nelson Freire, Maurizio Pollini, and the list goes on. But Tropp’s flawless articulation and bouncy rhythms leaves them all behind. Not to be neglected, the Fantasiestucke and Traumerei are rendered with a level of lyricism that finally does justice to the old cliche of making the piano sing.
The icing on the cake however is the brilliant recording by the Acoustic Revive engineers. While many piano recordings suffer from a muffled tone in quiet passages, the sound here sparkles even during the softest moments. The overtones, the transients, the spaciousness, they are all there in absolute detail. And the use of different recording techniques for each piece is never a distracting factor, actually quite the contrary. Both the one point microphone system for the Fantasiestucke and the Philips system for the Etudes, seem to have been carefully chosen to complement the characteristics of each selection. Traumerei in turn, is given three versions, each with a different mic arrangement, affording the listener a wonderful glimpse into distinct acoustic perspectives.
In the end, while this disc is hard to find, this is that rare instance where the rewards are truly worth the hefty price of admission.
