Duets and great piano pieces by Robert Schumann performed by the Druve twins, a duo that gave us duets by Mendelssohn on nosag CD 019 "...exactly the way it sounded when Felix and his sisters sang at home - pure and somewhat naïve." according to critics. Now they collaborate with very personal pianist Lars Hägglund, who also presents some of Schumanns most wellknown piano music, but in a way you NEVER heard them played. How about an almost 8 minutes of Träumerei, for example? Lilian & Anneli Druve, Sopranos; Lars Hägglund, piano You need Real Audio to listen to this file: Första mötet Listen to all nosag CDs on the air: "YESS music" with the whole CD-catalogue of nosag records

THE CRITICS:

MusicWeb: "During his short life Robert Schumann composed an enormous amount of music in most genres. His solo songs are well known, his duets much less so. On this disc we have eighteen duets, described in the booklet as "Duets for two sopranos and piano". The two singers - who actually are twins, which is rare enough in the musical world – both have light, lyrical voices, which blend well - who else should blend better than twins? - and they articulate the texts well.
Lars Hägglund is a good pianist, a notch over-emphatic at times but he gives a very credible account of Vogel als Prophet with some delicate touches. A bit on the slow side, perhaps, but that is nothing compared with Träumerei, the single piece by Schumann that "everybody" knows. At least I thought I did until Hägglund started to play it. At first I thought it was a misprint, then I recognised the tune but so slow it was that I wondered if something was wrong with my CD-player. Then I got out the piece from my admittedly meagre collection of sheet-music and found Schumann’s metronome marking "crotchet = 100". I don’t know if Schumann wrote it or if some latter day editor has added it, but that’s the tempo you normally hear. Hägglund’s metronome was set on approx. 40! Actually the whole performance is so slow that it is practically immobile. Just consider: most performers take 3:30, Hägglund takes 8:15! Collectors of curios might snap this CD up for the sake of Träumerei!"

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