Robert Schumann - Fantasiestück, Op. 111 No. 3 in C minor; Franz Schubert - Sonata D 850 in D major

Premiere album, released on March 13th

In recent years, pianist Can Çakmur has carried out an ambitious recording project entitled Schubert+, which brings together the complete works for solo piano by the prolific Austrian composer alongside pieces by composers who were inspired by him. The talented pianist states that his aim is to highlight "the importance Franz Schubert has had over time, at the intersection between Classical and Romantic creation."

In 2023, the Turkish-born musician released the album Schubert - Schönberg, highlighting the influence of the Viennese composer on modern music, a recording noted by the London-based publication International Piano, which praised the originality, eloquence, and subtlety of Can Çakmur's interpretation. This was followed in 2024 by an album featuring works by Schubert and Brahms, and then two further volumes which, alongside Schubert's works, included pieces by Jan Václav Voříšek, Alexander Scriabin, Frédéric Chopin, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

The newest disc in this collection, the sixth, released today, brings together works by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann - composers whom pianist Can Çakmur describes in the album booklet as having "shared a certain affinity for literature, engaging with philosophical concepts such as the human spirit and nature within German Romanticism." The album includes Schubert's Sonata D 850 in D major and the Waldszenen, as well as Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Op. 111.

Pianist Can Çakmur, born in 1997 in Ankara, studied in his hometown and at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, under Professor Marcella Crudeli. In 2017 he won the Scottish International Piano Competition, followed a year later by the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan. In 2022, he was appointed piano professor at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, becoming one of the youngest professors in the institution's history. Alongside his teaching activity, the pianist has performed in renowned venues such as Glasgow Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Muziekgebouw in Eindhoven, the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, and the Philharmonic Hall in Cluj-Napoca, presenting complex programs in which Romantic repertoire holds a significant place. The recordings released so far by this outstanding Turkish pianist have received enthusiastic reviews and International Classical Music Awards, including Young Artist of the Year in 2020 and Best Solo Recording in 2019 and 2015, with Gramophone noting that "these remarkable albums cannot be overlooked by those interested in refined and poetic pianism." Indeed, Can Çakmur is a musician of exceptional artistic qualities, with a refined and eloquent musical voice, supported by extraordinary technical abilities.