Missouri Classical Music News

Kushner has returned to the solo romantic repertory, with an album of works by Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann as well as one real rarity - a Sonata in G minor by Clara Schumann, the great muse and mentor for both men and one of the leading pianists and teachers of the 19th century. This last is a sweet, graceful work, filled with potent melodies, written in 1842 but never published until 150 years later.

Kushner's playing is exemplary throughout the album, but I am especially happy with her rendition of Schumann's "Kreisleriana," eight miniatures welling over with fantasy and invention that demand a pianist who will not only read the notes but give herself entirely to the composer's opulent, idiosyncratic cosmos. This is a beautiful disc.

In the Clara Schumann piece, written when she was only twenty-two, the emphasis is again on clarity and grace. Listen, for instance, to the light touch in the Scherzo; this is charm personified. Kushner brings out Clara's lyrical gift throughout the work. The sonata charts no new paths, but is worthy of being heard occasionally (or as often as one wants, with a recording as special as this one) and of being treasured for its modest beauty. . . .

Kushner, possibly best known from her duo-piano performances with the late Igor Kipnis, is a technically assured and musically perceptive performer. This recording is definitely worth having.

• Brahms, Sonata in C major, III
  
• Clara Schumann, Sonata in G minor, II
  
• Robert Schumann, Kreisleriana, Äußerst bewegt