(Photo: Christian Steiner)
By BERNARD HOLLAND [NY Times, 31 January 2006]

Schumann's reputation as a maximalist has not been helped by the oblivion visited on his only opera, "Genoveva," or on the curious hybrid quality of "Scenes From Goethe's 'Faust,' " a piece unable to decide whether it belongs on the stage or in the concert hall. The quasi-Oriental oratorio "Das Paradies und die Peri," put on by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday, is something else altogether.