This is the third of Imogen Cooper’s discs centred around Schumann for Chandos and the first wholly devoted to Robert. It’s a fascinatingly programmed affair, taking us from his youthful Abegg Variations right to the end of his life and the Geistervariationen. Curiously, it’s the second of the latter to have come my way in just a month. Cooper makes a more convincing case for the piece than did Cordelia Williams, giving the theme an appealing directness and making each variation seem completely inevitable. She also adds an unwritten reprise of the theme at the end, which is very touching. In the Abegg I wanted a greater sense of simple fingery virtuosity in the third variation, though her following Cantabile is sensitively done. The closing Vivace again could have been more playfully brilliant (as Staier demonstrated so colourfully on his Erard), Cooper perhaps searching for more substance than actually exists in this delightful piece.

The remainder is very fine. Everything Cooper does speaks of long acquaintance and real empathy. She opens with the extended Eighth Novellette, which is full of tenderness, passion and humour and never sounds overbearing in the louder passages. This particular Intermezzo was a highlight of Danny Driver’s recent set of the complete Op 21; he finds more of a bravura sweep in the outer sections of the Second, whereas for Cooper it’s all about the incident; in the lyrical inner section she finds a degree more depth than Driver, who is simply songful.

While Cooper doesn’t by any means underplay the swift changes of mood in Davidsbündlertänze, there’s always an eye on the bigger picture. Uchida and Haefliger are arguably more daring in their characterisation but in No 4, for example, Cooper combines impetuousness with wonderfully detailed voicings, while the dreamy No 7 gains an almost conversational tone thanks to her relatively swift tempo. On occasion I missed the rapturous beauty of sound that Uchida draws from the piano, but Cooper’s readings are unfailingly absorbing.