TRPTK vinyl productions are all done on ultra-high-quality 180-grams vinyl, using Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) technology cutting straight from the DXD 32bit master. This way, no detail gets lost in conversion, and you get to enjoy the beautiful analog sound of vinyl combined with the ultra-high-fidelity of our digital techniques.

Pianist Nicolas van Poucke set to record a collection of his favorite works by Robert Schumann. The Schumann Collection, Volume 1 is the first album in that series. The new Stereo and Multichannel DXD recording features Schumann’s Carnival, Op. 9, Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, and as icing on the cake, Arabeske, Op. 18.

“This is what I love so much about Schumann’s music. If I play Mozart, for example, you make up your own story connecting the pieces and stimulate your fantasy around them. You must create a narrative you play the program within. And that’s totally the opposite of what the composer originally meant with it, but it gives you structure in the fantasy around the piece.

With Schumann, though, it’s a different kind of story. He clearly tells you what he means, or envisions, with his music. You just need to get as close to what he meant as possible. I try to get myself into that sphere – which is an enormous task in itself – and then you still must be able to communicate that by converting all of this into the technical and mechanical side of things.

In the end, it’s about pressing keys on a keyboard. You can think of it as artistic big deal and all, but it’s just as much simply a craft. It’s all in translating what’s written on paper into playing the instrument, materializing this fantasy world into the mechanicals of it all.”

— Nicholas van Poucke

You can read more about this album in an interview featuring TRPTK’s Brendon Heinst and Pianist Nicolas van Poucke in this article on the NativeDSD Music Blog.

A word with the young freethinker among Dutch pianists