Freddy Kempf crams as much as he can into his version of the Études Symphoniques. Starting with the revised edition that Schumann published in 1852, he restores the two movements from the original 1837 version that the composer subsequently omitted and includes the five "posthumous" variations that only appeared in print nearly 35 years after Schumann's death. Rather than lumping the additions together as some pianists do, Kempf scatters them through the recording, creating a sequence that is never quite what you might expect. I'm not convinced it's the best solution to what is always a problematic work, but then Kempf's treatment doesn't quite hang together, either. In the Études and the Fantasiestücke his playing veers between ravishing, delicately coloured poetry and an almost dismissive fierceness, so that the promise of what could be a very fine Schumann set is repeatedly snatched away. It's an exasperating, rather perplexing disc.