Hong Kong-born New York-based Tiffany Poon is one of the piano world’s most enterprising vloggers and YouTube denizens, as well as the founder of the charity Together with Classical. Fortunately, the charming, articulate and determined personality that comes across through her social media platforms is reflected in the seriousness and focus of the Schumann performances contained on her Pentatone solo debut release.

Kinderszenen gets off to a rather square and stolid start with ‘Von fremden Ländern und Menschen’, but the dotted rhythms of ‘Kuriose Geschichte’ convey a winsome spring. ‘Hasche Mann’ zips by at quite a clip, and the left-hand crescendos are like a kick in the behind. Her ample tone and conversational handling of lines in ‘Glückes genug’ impress more than her slightly clipped and inhibited ‘Wichtige Begebenheit’. Happily, ‘Träumerei’ unfolds at an unsentimental, contrapuntally astute alla breve; too many young pianists milk this ubiquitous piece to death. I also like the expressive hesitations of ‘Am Kamin’, although the hobby horse depicted in No 9 sometimes wishes to be a bucking bronco (at least it’s not the wild mare from Stanislav Bunin’s recording – DG, 6/89). Poon’s three-dimensional voicing in ‘Fast zu ernst’ justifies her grippingly protracted tempo. This prepares listeners for the sustained lyricism, tenderness and repose that the pianist brings to the final three movements.

Poon aligns the Arabeske’s textural components like a perfectly made bed in a five-star hotel, yet her ‘sing-songy’ scansion of the main theme grows increasingly predictable, while she underplays the march section’s dotted rhythms. Then again, I must admit that the poetic eloquence and controlled freedom of Arthur Rubinstein’s live 1961 Carnegie Hall performance has spoilt me for life.

However, this gifted pianist makes Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze her own. Although her basic and rather strictly held tempo for the opening piece is less lively and impetuous than Schumann’s Lebhaft directive implies, her buoyant rhythm, variety of touch, discreet pedalling and shapely phrasing command attention. Similarly, No 2’s unpressured lilt results from the pianist’s steady pulse and clearly delineated inner voices. Note, too, the controlled abandon of No 4’s broken chords, plus a disarmingly strolling rather than indulgently lurching No 5 for a change.

Usually No 6’s rapid triplet figurations transpire with cookie-cutter uniformity, but Poon’s over-the-bar-line phrasing and emphatic accents rightly keep the listener off balance. As such, I would have liked more dash and audacity throughout the ‘stride piano’ No 8 and Mit Humor (No 12), and less inhibition over No 15’s left-hand octaves, yet Poon allows No 9 to truly soar. Although I prefer the more fearless demeanour characterising recent Davidsbündlertänze editions from José Navarro-Silberstein (Genuin, 2023) and Marcin Fleszar (Rubicon, 2020), Tiffany Poon’s refined workmanship and intelligent musicality deserve respect and consideration, as does Pentatone’s superb recording.