The Pleyel Quartett Köln performs on period instruments, utilizing gut strings and selective vibrato to achieve a limpid and warm tonal transparency.
Compositional Technique
Schumann's Piano Quintet, Op. 44, features a cyclically rounded structure with the return of the initial theme in the final double fugue.
Recording & Production
The recording features a pianoforte from the Dresden workshop of Clara Schumann's cousin, Wilhelm Wieck, dating from around 1860.
Performer Biography
Tobias Koch, the pianist on this recording, is known for his work with historical keyboard instruments and is regarded as a distinguished Schumann interpreter in Romantic authentic period performance.
Composer Biography
Ferdinand Hiller, a composer and pianist, was ennobled in 1875 and was considered one of the most influential musical figures of his time.
Critical Reception
Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet, Op. 44, was greeted by his wife Clara Schumann as "a work full of freshness and vigor," but Franz Liszt found it too "Leipzigian," meaning academic.
Composition History
Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet, Op. 44, was completed in less than four weeks in 1842, from its first mention to the final fugue.
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