Nicolai Petrov plays Schumann: Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13

With his Etudes Symphoniques, Robert Schumann attempted to capture the power and colour of an orchestra at the piano keyboard – a genre-defying, era-defining piano masterpiece by a young artist whose imagination acknowledged no limits. They're perfect, in other words, for Nicolai Petrov: the hugely respected Russian virtuoso whose career began at the Van Cliburn and Queen Elisabeth piano competitions. Petrov's mastery was rooted in the great Romantic tradition, and this performance, captured live at the Philharmonie am Gasteig during the 1988 Munich Klaviersommer festival, finds him in full flight, at the height of his formidable powers.