For his second album on the SWR label, Robert Neumann chose two works that are easily paired and are close to the pianist’s heart. Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana depicts a character featured in several tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann, while Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition describes the contemplation of artworks by the painter Viktor Hartmann. Both are examples of programme music with somewhat comparable ideas but, as Neumann puts it, ‘One idea deals with a real character, the other one doesn’t… And I think both show in an exemplary manner how flawlessly and in different ways a great Romantic cycle can be structured.’

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (SWR19148EP) is also available for streaming and download.