Schumann: Piano Quintet, Op.44 & Piano Quartet, Op.47

Featuring

Alexander Pavlovsky
Sergei Bresler
Ori Kam
Kyril Zlotnikov
Alexander Melnikov
Jerusalem Quartet

Robert Schumann

Did you know?

1/7

Instruments

For the Piano Quartet op.47, the cellist, Kyril Zlotnikov of the Jerusalem Quartet, tunes his C string down a whole tone for a specific passage in the Andante cantabile.

Composer Biography

Robert Schumann's early artistic career, from 1830 to 1839, was almost exclusively dedicated to piano compositions.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Schumann sought to merge the poetic idiom of his piano music with the formal cogency of the chamber music of his role models like Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven.

Composition History

The years after 1840 marked a new beginning for Robert and Clara Schumann, as legal battles with Clara's father, Friedrich Wieck, who opposed their marriage, finally ended.

Compositional Technique

The Piano Quintet op.44 employs the principle of cyclical unity, a fundamental formal notion of the Romantic era, through motivic cross-references and the return of the main theme in the finale.

Composition History

In 1842, Robert Schumann dedicated himself to chamber music, composing the three String Quartets op.41, followed by the Piano Quintet op.44 and the Piano Quartet op.47.