 Le programme de ce CD avait déjà été enregistré par Peter Frankl accompagné de Janos Fürst et de l’orchestre de Bamberg, par Benedetto Lupo accompagné de Peter Maag et de l’orchestre de la Suisse italienne, ce dernier y adjoignant même une adaptation par Carl Reinecke (1824-1910) de la Konzertstück pour 4 cors et orchestre op. 86, puis plus récemment par Jan Liesicki et Antonio Pappano. Né en 2000, artiste résident de la fondation Singer Polignac, Arthur Hinnewinkel propose cette trilogie concertante comme carte de visite de son premier disque, avec l’accompagnement de Marc Coppey et du Sinfonia Varsovia. On est heureux de l’intelligence de ce programme qui permet d’échapper au traditionnel couplage Schumann-Grieg, et donne à entendre un pianiste particulièrement sensible aux humeurs fantasques et changeantes de Schumann. Le concerto, qui apparaît dans les trois dernières plages de l’enregistrement, bénéficie d’une juvénilité parfaitement adaptée à la Fantaisie qu’était initialement son Allegro affetuoso, tandis que l’intermezzo median, caractérisé Andante grazioso, chante avec un lyrisme sincère sans mièvrerie, avant un allegro vivace finale d’une ardeur communicative. La cadence du premier mouvement brille particulièrement par la subtilité de ses plans sonores. Ce sont les mêmes qualités que l’on retrouve dans l’Introduction et Allegro appassionato op. 92, dont l’Introduction douloureuse, évoquant l’ouverture contemporaine de "Manfred," pose aux pianistes — Clara Schumann s’y était fait siffler lors de la création en 1850 ! — de redoutables problèmes de fusion dans l’orchestre, ici résolus avec justesse. L’Introduction et Allegro op. 134, cadeau d’anniversaire de Robert à Clara, porte les marques du trouble des dernières années du compositeur : changements rapides, pas de transitions, idées venant de nulle part, une atmosphère qui laisse peu de place à l’amour, la joie ou la paix. Arthur Hinnewinkel excelle à rendre ces états. Belle carte de visite d’un jeune pianiste à suivre. (Jacques-Philippe Saint-Gerand) Although Arthur Hinnewinkel has chosen Robert Schumann, one of the most tormented composers in history, as the sole emblem of his first recording, he nonetheless radiates serenity and simplicity. His artistic commitment is bathed in a form of obviousness, the logical outcome of a career he has never planned in terms of objectives. Instead, he has followed the rhythm of his passion alone, of an eagerness to play and share, which cannot be decided at the snap of a finger but is patiently built in the slow pace of daily practice and childhood transformations. Arthur Hinnewinkel was born into a family where music was omnipresent; his father was a classical and jazz guitarist who took his family to a succession of more or less exotic spots: the United States, Switzerland, the Pays de Gex... He was around six when he experienced his first thrills on the keyboard in Singapore. He remembers six particularly intense months in a Russian teacher’s class he attended just before the family left Asia to settle in the Paris suburbs: “I must have been ten years old, and her teaching was based on practising very challenging works, to help me progress more rapidly.” In Paris, Arthur Hinnewinkel went from one conservatory to another: Rueil with Chantal Riou, Conservatoire régional de Paris with Anne-Lise Gastaldi, then the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris. These five years in the class of Hortense Cartier-Bresson and Fernando Rossano definitively shifted his focus towards music. “Those years at the CNSM were those of my first appearances on the concert stage and the building of a close group of friends, with whom I still enjoy performing at festivals today”. After taking full advantage of Hortense Cartier- Bresson’s teaching – “her exacting musical standards, her approach of the contrasting languages among composers” – the pianist chose to go “back to the roots”. He believes – and rightly so! – that Anne-Lise Gastaldi had not yet given him everything and that her approach would complement the teaching of his professors in the upper classes. Between 2021 and 2024, Arthur Hinnewinkel prepared himself for several competitions under Gastaldi’s guidance, which led him, in particular, to the final stage of the Clara Haskil Competition in Vevey in September 2023. In the chamber music round, he shared the stage with cellist Marc Coppey, a musician with whom he had already enjoyed playing. That’s why he had no hesitation in choosing Marc Coppey as the conductor for his first recording when he was awarded the 2024 Thierry Scherz Prize at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, with a bonus orchestral recording. “The mutual trust, the very close musical understanding that unites us, the same desire to share and express made him the ideal conductor for this album.” The recording took place in Warsaw in September 2024. It coincided with the start of Hinnewinkel’s residency at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium, “an exceptional place of study surrounded by deer and does, where the emphasis is set on preparation for concerts.” This Schumann album is Arthur Hinnewinkel’s outcome of a year’s companionship with the Zwickau-born composer in whom, he believes, “one can recognise oneself at all ages of life, so multifaceted is his work, stretched between the love of childhood, poetic desire, the art of counterpoint and tormented romanticism”. A keen reader, the pianist went into isolation for six months and immersed himself passionately in the works of Jean Paul – a bedside reading companion for the young Schumann, who had long fancied himself a poet! – but also E. T. A. Hoffmann and his Kreisleriana, Ondine by Friedrich de La Motte-Fouqué, and, above all, the unfinished novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen by Novalis – the archetypal German Romantic poet in whom Hinnewinkel sees the shadow of Schumann everywhere – “this voyage of initiation, this exploration of dreams, of the subconscious”. Once the stage was set, it was time to define the programme. While the Concerto in A minor stands out as the album’s centrepiece, there are few possible pairings if one wishes to remain with Schumann and the orchestra. The first of these works is one of Arthur Hinnewinkel’s favourites: “The orchestral solo sequences in the Konzertstück op. 92 have always made me dream. Enveloping the song of the most beautiful instruments in arpeggiated chords, soaking up the harmony in slow phrases, isn’t that total bliss?” As for the Introduction and Allegro op. 134, Schumann’s penultimate work, the pianist was attracted by its challenging character: “This skillful, not merely virtuoso writing, this unbelievably rich polyphony, all these cadenzas, including the almost unplayable finale, this nearly mystical dimension that hangs over the Introduction and this almost painful D minor key – everything contributes in making this gift presented to the young Brahms a total challenge.”
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