Between Fire and Silence

A gifted young pianist makes a superb debut in Schumann!
For an aspiring pianist to arrive on the scene playing two masterpieces by Schumann breaks the mold of the calling-card debut program, which typically grows from a kind of “I can play anything” bravado. The young Danish pianist David Munk-Nielsen could have leaned in that direction. Born in Copenhagen in 1998, he made a startling precocious appearance on Danish TV playing a Chopin waltz at age six, and his virtuosity is attested to by recitals that include Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Ligeti. By comparison, Kinderszenen practically speaks in an undertone, and the Fantasy in C challenges the most mature interpreters. If Munk-Nielsen can send a strong signal here, he will attract some elite, advanced attention.
This superb debut inspires hope that Munk-Nielsen achieves wider appreciation and recognition. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that he emerges as the most gifted Nordic pianist of his generation.

A great album for those who want to hear Romantic piano music played delicately, quietly, and lyrical.
David Munk-Nielsen has made an excellent debut recital that shows him to be a great exemplar of the more delicate, poetic sides of 19th and early 20th century Romanticism. I can hardly wait to hear him explore more of that repertoire (a disc of the Chopin Nocturnes, maybe?). Strongly recommended.
 

Kinderszenen, far from being pieces for children, finds the mature Robert Schumann looking back at childhood with more than a little nostalgia. Here Munk-Nielsen strikes a superb balance between innocence, laughter and a hint of tears. Still more satisfying is his ability to project musical architecture and narrative in the Fantasie in C, in which Schumann combined a tribute to Beethoven with the impassioned expression of his love for Clara Wieck.
Munk-Nielsen embraces its formidable pianistic challenges with verve, while taking to Schumann's stream of consciousness like the proverbial duck to water. He goes straight into the flow without pretention his voicing, pace, rubato and structural awareness are rarely short of ideal and his considerable virtuosity is always placed at the service of the work's intensely emotional message. There's stiff competition on disc - witness Nikolai Lugansky's magisterial recent recording - but Munk-Nielsen's open-hearted, communicative directness deserves the warmest of welcomes.
The Sibelius pieces occupy a world more rugged and outdoorsy, a hint of thunder threatening round its corners. Munk-Nielsen, who studied in Finland, seems to identify with this just as easily as with the Schumann. In all, he is a pianist I will look forward to hearing much more of in future.