The  theme had been sent to Schumann by Baron von Fricken, guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella of his Carnaval op. 9. The baron, an amateur musician, had used the melody in a Theme with Variations for flute. Schumann had been engaged to Ernestine in 1834, only to break abruptly with her the year after.

Hardly surprising then that  Schumann thought it was unsuitable for public performance and advised his wife  Clara not to play it!The entire work was dedicated to Schumann’s English friend, the pianist and composer  William Sterndale Bennett who  played the piece frequently in England to great acclaim.

Of the sixteen variations Schumann composed on Fricken’s theme, only eleven were published by him. The final, twelfth, published étude was a variation on the theme from the Romance Du stolzes England freue dich (Proud England, rejoice!), from  Marschner’s opera based on Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (as a tribute to Schumann’s English friend and dedicatee Sterndale Bennett). The earlier Fricken theme  does occasionally appear  during this étude and the work was first published in 1837 as XII Études Symphoniques. On republishing the set in 1890, Brahms restored the five variations that had been cut by Schumann. These are now often played, but in positions within the cycle that vary somewhat with each performance; there are now twelve variations and these five so-called “posthumous” variations which exist as a supplement.

Alim played the original 12 Etudes Symphoniques and did not incorporate, as many do, the five posthumous variations.This gave a great architectural structure to the work and through the gradual build up and with his superb musicianship he did infact make these into truly Symphonic studies.

The simplicity and beauty of the theme and gentle question mark ending led so naturally into the lightweight scamperings in which the theme emerges with a superb sense of legato and staccato.The passionate beauty of the second variation played quite simply without any false exaggerations in the repeats but allowing the music to talk and speak for itself.The lightweight flight of the third was quite remarkable  with the melodic line so beautifully shaped in the tenor register. The third chordal study played with a forward motion  as it contrasted so well with Schumann’s  lightweight flights of capricious fancy free  invention. The passionate outburst of the fifth  was played with  impetus and impeccable technical control leading into the chords of the sixth played with great rhythmic energy and  again total control especially in the trecherous final octaves.

The shape and structure of a  Gothic Cathedral as Agosti described the seventh showed again Alim’s real musicianship and sense of  architectural line .Allied always to a beautiful sense of contrast and colour but never forgetting the overall direction and shape of this  musically most complex of studies.The ninth study was thrown of with a Mendelssohnian ease that belies the real technical difficulties involved.The  tenth -the calm before the storm-  was played with a beautiful left hand tremolando much as he had done in the Liszt study.It allowed the melodic line and counterpoints to sing unimpeded as they conversed amongst themselves gently leading to the great passionate  outburst before dying away so magically.The finale was played with all the rhythmic impulse and romantic aplomb where his subtle sense of colour and shaping managed to shape the dotted rhythms, that Schumann too often inflicts on us, with such nobility and aristocratic control .

An encore of a Scarlatti Sonata in G showed off the crystalline technique and sense of colour together with an infectious sense of rhythmic urgency that can turn these seemingly innocent little  sonatas into  such sparkling jewels