Danny Driver has made some superb records for Hyperion, including music by C P E Bach, Handel, Balakirev and York Bowen. He’s in wonderful form for this Robert Schumann collection, playing robustly and tenderly, and with much in between capturing perfectly the composer’s romance and flights of fancy. This music is alive with feeling, conscience and individuality. The eight Novelletten, whether taken as a set (of nearly 50 minutes’ duration) or as individual pieces, are full of wonder and energy; each might paint a picture and certainly each is full of human feeling, the music itself unpredictable and emotionally heightened, all of which Driver has under his fingers and in his heart and head. The four Night Pieces, as might be expected, as more reclusive and shadowy, but not without their own vigour, Schumann’s characteristic enigma always present to tell us that something – much – lies between the notes. To end the recital, the second of the three Romances is ineffably lovely and lovingly played. Excellent sound; immediate but not intimidating.