As early as the end of the 1870s, the composer Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-1888) — dedicatee of the Romanzen and author of a guide to piano music — deplored the fact that Kirchner, ‘despite his immense warmth, his elegance and his creative ingenuity, does not more often receive in the world of the piano the consideration that the worth of his pieces might lead one to expect’.
Thus even in his own lifetime his music had already fallen victim to relative neglect, subsequently, alas, to disappear totally from the repertoire. Sharing the sad fate of other ‘secondary’ creators like Alkan or Heller, he has been still more drastically banished by posterity than these two composers, for even today his name is hopelessly absent, unlike theirs, from almost every dictionary of music, including the most specialist titles1.
The present recording will make it possible to measure how great this injustice is and how urgent it is to restore this fascinating musician to the place he deserves, not only in musicological works, but also, and above all, in the hearts of music lovers. "Inventor of the Songs of the Dawn as Alain Lompech wrote to salute the very first recording of this work of Schumann, of which the pianist leaves an unequalled interpretation, Jean Martin is still the first to share with us the beautiful music of this German composer in the wake of Schumann and Brahms. (Arion/Qobuz)