Three works inspired by poetry form the thread Hungarian pianist Denes Varjon sews into his album subtitled De La Nuit featuring ground-breaking pieces by a trio of composers separated by almost 100 years. Its title comes from Gaspard de la Nuit, Ravel’s stunning settings of three Gothic poems by Aloysius Bertrand, the pivot of the program which starts with Schumann’s Fantasiestücke and ends on home ground for Varjon with Bartók’s Out of Doors.

Schumann’s eight short pieces were inspired by verses by Jean Paul and ETA Hoffmann and were composed at a time when he was only able to maintain contact with his beloved Clara secretly. It is harder to make a poetic connection for Bartók’s...