Two very familiar portraits of the artists: poems on the theme of the stranger who, driven by some inner force, finds himself in an alien country without friends, consumed by a longing to find his homeland and hear his own language and in Schumann’s case written during the period when he feared he would never be united with Clara Wieck.

They are heard here in new orchestral arrangements in a first recording for Signum. It is also the first appearance on the label for the English Chamber Orchestra. In Joseph James's versions, which never depart far from the originals, the two Fantasies take on a character but the sense of free improvisation remains. Surprisingly listenable and splendidly committed playing from the ECO and friends!