Composer: Robert Schumann
Performer: Dvořák Piano Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Supraphon
Catalogue: SU43052
Release: 2022
Size: 2.44 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Quartet in C Minor
01. No. 1, Allegro molto affettuoso
02. No. 2, Minuetto. Presto
03. No. 3, Andante
04. No. 4, Allegro giusto – Presto
Märchenerzahlungen, Op. 132
05. No. 1, Lebhaft, nicht zu schnell
06. No. 2, Lebhaft und sehr markiert
07. No. 3, Ruhiges Tempo mit zartem Ausdruck
08. No. 4, Lebhaft, sehr markiert
Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47
09. No. 1, Sostenuto assai – Allegro ma non troppo
10. No. 2, Scherzo. Molto vivace
11. No. 3, Andante cantabile
12. No. 4, Finale. Vivace
Robert Schumann, a versatile, well-educated young artist destined for great things, a man whose music has always amazed with its extent and profundity… and also a person of delicate psyche, which many a time led him to the very border between life and death.
Schumann composed the Piano Quartet in C minor, his first piece of this ilk, at the age of 18, and although, notwithstanding his original intention, he would never remake it into a symphony, he still had it on his mind some 20 years later: “I vividly recollect a passage in one of my works (1828), which I thought was romantic, with a spirit different to that of old music that appeared to me as though opening up a new poetic life”. The Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47, already attests to Schumann’s compositional mastery, with its idiom inspired by Bach and Beethoven yet speaking in a clearly singular language.
The 1853 Märchenerzählungen, was one of the composer’s last happy creative upswings, written shortly before he attempted suicide by jumping from a bridge into the river Rhine with the aim to put an end to his unbearable mental torment.
This Dvořák Piano Quartet’s album spans the entire arch of Schumann’s work: the beginning, the peak and the end. Just like all his music, it shows how immense beauty is often close to pain and suffering. Immense beauty and anguish of the soul in Schumann’s chamber music.