It may be thought strange that these six quartets are not more often coupled on record, for they present in microcosm a network of the correspondences and conflicts in the musical personalities of these two friends. Certainly the Melos Quartett of Stuttgart remain almost unrivalled not just in this coupling, but in their technical address and classically German sonority that allows us to hear the past, present and future context of these quartets.

Schumann’s three quartets pour forth in a river of breathless song, part of the Chamber Music Year of 1842 which also saw the composition of the Piano Quartet and Quintet. The concentration is entirely typical of Schumann – the years immediately preceding had been occupied, one at a time, with piano music, song and orchestral music – and conditions the peculiar, ungovernable intensity of these pieces.

Brahms, by contrast, wrote and then burnt at least 20 string quartets before he allowed the D minor work Op.51 No.1 to see the light of day, so oppressed was he not just by Beethoven’s mantle but perhaps also by Schumann’s publicly expressed determination to place it upon him. The result shows in a toughly argued and haunted piece which, just as with the first two symphonies, was quickly followed by a much sunnier work for the same forces.

‘Their playing is immediately enjoyable for its warmth, its rhythmic impulse and its very positive directness... The Melos, with their pungent accentuation, are splendid in the tempo risoluto variation of the second movement (of Schumann’s Third Quartet) and in the dancing finale, just as they are in the exuberant vitality of the First Quartet’s concluding Presto.’ - Gramophone, April 1989

Contents:
Johannes Brahms
- String Quartet Op.51 No.1
- String Quartet Op.51 No.2
- String Quartet in B flat major, Op.67

Robert Schumann
- String Quartet in A minor, Op.41, No.1
- String Quartet in F major, Op.41, No.2
- String Quartet in A major, Op.41, No.3