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Schumann - String Quartets

£13.88

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Label: Pentatone

Cat No: PTC5186869

Barcode: 0827949086960

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 23rd October 2020

Works

Schumann, Robert

String Quartet in A major, op.41 no.3
String Quartet in A minor, op.41 no.1
String Quartet in F major, op.41 no.2

Artists

Emerson String Quartet

Works

Schumann, Robert

String Quartet in A major, op.41 no.3
String Quartet in A minor, op.41 no.1
String Quartet in F major, op.41 no.2

Artists

Emerson String Quartet

About

The Emerson String Quartet makes it PENTATONE debut with a recording of Schumann’s three string quartets. Penned in the summer of 1842 during an exceptional peak of creativity, these quartets formed the beginning of a six-month surge during which most of Schumann’s best chamber music saw the light. Inspired by the example of Beethoven, Schumann’s quartets display a mastery of traditional forms, combined with typically Schumannian fantasy and lyricism, particularly in the inner movements. As such, they underline a new level of maturity in Schumann’s artistic development, surpassing the fantastical aesthetic of previous years.

The players of the Emerson String Quartet lift out the extraordinary freshness and originality of these works, and add another master composer’s quartet oeuvre to their impressive discography, after having recorded the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartók, Webern and Shostakovich. The artistic strength of Schumann, whose life was dominated by alternating periods of depression and manic creativity, inspires and consoles the quartet members during the uncertain times of a pandemic, and his music may equally inspire listeners.

Since its foundation in 1976, the Emerson String Quartet is ranked among the world’s most acclaimed chamber music ensembles.

“they are mightily impressive.” – Gramophone

“... with musicians like this there must be some hope for humanity.” – The Times (London)

“The performances were everything we have come to expect from this superb ensemble: technically resourceful, musically insightful, cohesive, full of character and always interesting.” – The New York Times

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Op.41/1 in A minor: 1. Introduzione. Andante espressivo – Allegro
2

Op.41/1 in A minor: 2. Scherzo. Presto
3

Op.41/1 in A minor: 3. Adagio
4

Op.41/1 in A minor: 4. Presto
5

Op.41/2 in F major: 1. Allegro vivace
6

Op.41/2 in F major: 2. Andante, quasi variazioni
7

Op.41/2 in F major: 3. Scherzo. Presto
8

Op.41/2 in F major: 4. Allegro molto vivace
9

Op.41/3 in A major: 1. Andante espressivo – Allegro molto maestoso
10

Op.41/3 in A major: 2. Assai agitato
11

Op.41/3 in A major: 3. Adagio molto
12

Op.41/3 in A major: 4. Finale. Allegro molto vivace

Europadisc Review

They may not be the best-known works in the chamber repertoire, but Schumann’s three string quartets, written in a remarkable seven-week period in the summer of 1842, are real gems. They are among his first efforts to confront head-on the larger sonata-form structures that, until then, he had largely avoided with his natural preference for small forms: songs and cycles of piano miniatures. Yet they amount to much more than just preparatory work for the miraculous Piano Quintet and Piano Quartet that followed swiftly in their wake. Complete recordings of the set of three quartets are relatively few considering Schumann’s posthumous stature, and any cycle is to be warmly welcomed – all the more so when the performers are the great Emerson String Quartet, here making their debut on the Pentatone label, having long been stars on the Deutsche Grammophon roster.

These recordings, made between May 2018 and January 2019, bear all the Emersons’ trademarks: technical precision, generous tone and unanimity of purpose, coupled with what feels like a new warmth and depth of perception born of many years’ experience. Although they had recorded the third of these quartets before for DG, this is their first survey of the complete set, and it’s a joy from start to finish.

The First Quartet, in A minor, contains obvious nods towards Beethoven in the first movement's slow introduction and sudden burst of life in the transition to the Allegro, in the compact rhythmic drive of the Scherzo, and above all in the gorgeous Adagio with its clear opening reference to the slow movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The concluding Presto starts in positively Mendelssohnian mood, while the sudden intrusion towards the end of bagpipe drones and a moment of pure introspection momentarily recalls Haydn as well as Beethoven’s late Op.132 Quartet before resuming the prevailing happy mood. The Emersons, with all their experience as Beethoven performers, clearly revel in this music, delivering one of the most uplifting performances since the Zehetmair Quartet on ECM (2003), steadier in pacing but also more focused, so that every detail of Schumann's remarkably assured writing can be savoured (he had made a close study of the Mozart and Beethoven quartets before writing these works).

The Second Quartet, in F major, is less recorded than its sister pieces, but listening to the Emersons’ performance you may well wonder why. It has about it a marvellous homeliness, channeling the spirit of Haydn perhaps, but with unmistakably Schumannesque harmonic and textural turns. There’s a marvellously tense, spectral quality to the A flat major Molto più lento episode, all sinister, clouded flats (and a few sharps, too!) in the Andante slow movement, with players producing a slightly sour edge to the sound that sends a chill down the spine. The following Scherzo, with its continual syncopations and upbeat phrasing, does indeed tumble forward as described in Paul Epstein’s exceptionally engaging booklet notes, while the concluding Allegro molto vivace has a deliciously amiable perpetuum mobile feel to it, recalling the light touch of some of Schumann’s finest piano miniatures, here absorbed into an altogether more expanded structure with great skill and panache.

Most touching of all is the Third Quartet, in A major, with its clear references to Schumann’s wife Clara in the first movement’s main subject. The way in which the Andante introduction gently slides into the Allegro proper is one of the great moments in Schumann’s music, and it's managed here with the sort of understatement that only great artistry can bring. Here Schumann is very much his own master, the hesitations, twists and inflections unmistakably marked with his own thumbprint. The Emersons bring a wonderful inwardness to this music, enhancing the feel of the composer communing with his beloved, most of all in the rapt third movement Adagio.

The performance is capped with a deft account of the folk-infused Finale, the tempo held carefully in check but its main theme delightfully sprung and inflected, and the individual episodes (some of which clearly anticipate the Piano Quintet) beautifully characterised. The contained elegance of the Emersons’ playing works wonders in this music, as it does throughout the disc, which deserves to be heard by chamber music lovers everywhere. A timely return for a great ensemble.

Reviews

Now, in a debut recording on the Pentatone label, the Emerson Quartet’s Schumann: String Quartets shows these works in all their variety, intensity and, so often, mystery. ... The Emersons’ clarity shows the music in all its extraordinary originality. Fiona Maddocks

The Observer 29 November 2020