Robert & Clara Schumann

How many ways do you think a piano can sound? Take, for example, Tobias Koch’ newly released Schumann solo CD reaching classical CD shops on the anniversary of his GENUIN debut and then select track 13: "Farewell" from Schumann’s Waldszenen—so tender, so weightless, that you grasp why the piano belongs to the family of stringed instruments and can only ask yourself, in desparation: “Why aren’t some key-thumpers forced to undergo the therapy of playing a grand piano from 1852—the likes of which Tobias Koch brings to life with singing breath... Or why not try listening to Clara Schumann’s light and airy Prelude on track 22? Or... I know what: just listen to the whole CD—that is how a piano can sound!

"The easily flowing playing of Tobias Koch breathes shimmering life into the tonal colors of Robert Schumann’s piano works."
HR 2, CD-Tip

"A small jewel of a recording whose radiant power will hopefully cast its spell over as many listeners as possible."
CD selection on NDR-Kultur

"Throughout the recording Koch´s staccato is even, crisp and admirely controlled. This is of particular benefit to the fifth caconic study and the second of the Fugues, op. 72."
Read the whole review in the Early Music magazine, November 2010.

"The spookiness of his Verrufene Stelle, the pensive quality of Abschied, and the playfulness of his Jäger auf der Lauer make this recording a very refined one."
Read the profound review essay "Robert Schumann Recordings on Perion Pianos in the Bicentennial Year" in the magazine Keyboard Perspectives III (2010).