For Robert Schumann 1842 was a year of chamber music. His compositions that year included three string quartets, written down in the space of a few weeks, after close study of the classical form.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

SCHUMANN String Quartets: op 41/1–3 • Fine Arts Qrt • NAXOS 8.570151 (79.05)


This offering unleashed a flood of nostalgia. At the risk of dating myself (a truly bizarre concept if one thinks about it), my very first exposure to the Brahms and Beethoven quartets was from the eight hands of the Fine Arts Quartet—at its 1946 founding consisting of violinists Leonard Sorkin and Joseph Stepansky, violist Shephard Lehnhoff, and cellist George Sopkin—as recorded on the no longer extant Concert-Disc label. Those recordings were budget releases; back in those halcyon days, they cost just under two dollars per disc. The early stereo sound was more than adequate for the time, and the range of repertoire was exceptional—from Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms through Hindemith, Bloch, Bartók, and beyond. Having been more than favorably impressed, not to mention enlightened, by their Beethoven and Brahms, I felt emboldened enough to dip into their Bloch, Hindemith, and Bartók offerings, and became a modernist despite my then musically conservative leanings. In all cases the FAQ’s high-energy playing seemed informed by an almost messianic zeal, a quality that became increasingly apparent as I later acquired LPs and CDs of this repertoire by virtually all of the name-brand quartets available. The Quarteto Italiano could be more sonically elegant; the Guarneri Quartet more impressively symphonic; the Emerson Quartet more analytically cogent, etc. etc., but . . . ! In preparation for this review, I hauled out a few of those ancient Concert Disc LPs, which I hadn’t listened to in almost 20 years, and was astonished at their riveting freshness despite their undeniably dated sound.


As to be expected, over the years the FAQ underwent personnel changes. I won’t catalog them here since that information is easily found on the Internet. In this current incarnation the violinists are Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, the violist is Yuri Gandelsman, and the cellist is Wolfgang Laufer. On this release, all four ably uphold the FAQ’s legacy by providing edge-of-the-seat playing marked by probing insights into Schumann’s naively innocent German Romanticism. These three works are, despite their occasional backward glances at Beethoven, love letters to Clara—elaborated spiritual extensions of his ardent Lied, Widmung —and that aspect is vividly conveyed here. The FAQ, as with all practicing string quartets, has the advantage of hindsight, and here it vividly shows the kinship between the first movement of Schumann’s Second String Quartet and that of Brahms’s op. 111 Quintet. Schumann celebrates the freshness of Romanticism’s morning; Brahms, its melancholy sunset.


The FAQ’s intonation and balances are beyond reproach. Its ensemble is razor sharp in the quicker music, and in the slower moments its phrasing breathes naturally (no mean feat). Given the competition by such ensembles as the Emerson, Melos, and Takács Quartets, they shine. The sound of this disc is excellent—capturing the quartet’s distinctive timbre and steering a judicious course between linear detail and ensemble heft and mass.


In short, this is desert island stuff.


FANFARE: William Zagorski

Clara Schumann the composer often worked in her husband' shadow, many of her songs being mistaken for his, although those best loved by the public flowed from her pen.

Faced with the challenge of following in Beethoven's giant symphonic footsteps, Robert Schumann acknowledged this musical predecessor, but expanded his forms and structures into new and impassioned utterances. Inspired "by the spirit of spring", the Symphony No. 1 was swiftly composed and was a huge success at it's premiere in 1841. The Symphony No. 2 had a longer gestation, but for many has become a symphonic song of praise and rejoicing for which "Gerard Schwarz and his Seattle Symphony Orchestra serve as excellent guides". (Gramophone)

Robert Schumann drew inspiration from other leading Romantic voices of his day, and Manfred is the dramatic overture to a work based on verses by Lord Byron. Schumann’s wife Clara was an extremely accomplished musician, and the Piano Concerto in A minor is one of the most eloquent and highly regarded legacies of their relationship. Lacking only a slow movement, the Overture, Scherzo and Finale is a symphony in all but name. Gramophone described these performances as “extremely fine”.

Idil Biret Solo Edition, Vol. 5

Classical Music

Classical Music

Schumann, Robert Richard Tognetti Complete works for Violin and Orchestra

The three string quartets of Robert Schumann were composed in 1842 and I believe, are often overlooked and underrated, despite them being from his remarkable ‘chamber music year’, in favour of his Piano Quintet completed a few months after these three wonderful examples of quartet writing. In the same way that he studied the symphonies of Beethoven before he composed any of his own orchestral works, the year began with both Clara and Robert totally immersing themselves in the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven making a thorough study of form and structure. He had toyed with composing a quartet previously, but had discarded any musical plans a few years previously. He began to seriously contemplate their composition in February of 1842 but then suffered a severe bout of depression, with work only beginning on the A minor Quartet on the 4th of June and, after a remarkably creative period, he had completed all three by the 22nd of June, with Clara writing in their joint marriage diaries on the 29th that “ Robert has been very busy, completed 3 quartets … let us drink to the health of these 3 children, barely born and already completed and beautiful.” They were performed on the 13th September as a present for Clara who was celebrating her 23rd birthday, they were later published the following year.

All three quartets are in four movements, with Schumann striving to write pure music rather than any idea of programmatical music such as he employed in his Spring Symphony of the previous year, the result being beautiful examples of his art. The opening of the A minor Quartet reminds us that whilst he had studied the quartets of his great predecessors, Bach’s ‘48’ was never too far from his side, with its richly contrapuntal first theme a sort of homage to his hero. In the F Major Quartet, the opening slow introduction to the first movement leads into the first main theme that dominates the whole movement and almost pushes the second theme into the background. I particularly like the second movement which is a set of variations based upon the Larghetto from his Albumblätter of 1832. The Quartet in A Major is my favourite of the three and once again begins with a slow introduction, but here the it presents the music that will be developed later into the main theme of the movement. The final two movements are linked in the way that Schumann employs the dotted rhythm from the Adagio molto and develops it in the Allegro molto vivace to underpin the music of the rondo, the only time he uses a rondo as a finale in his chamber music, with its gavotte-like final theme or episode being an apt finale to Schumann’s quartet output.

I have greatly enjoyed the performances of the Engegård Quartet, they have a drive and enthusiasm that is infectious; these are performances that firmly place them near the top in my collection and well ahead of some highly respected and much vaunted performances including the Zehetmair Quartet (472 169-2) and the Melos Quartet (423 670-2) which was the performance through which I got to know the works back in the early 1990s. Their performance is a little brisker than my favourite performance by the Eroica Quartet (HMU 907270), whose period performance wins through for me, but when it comes to a modern version this has quickly become my favourite recording. This is helped by an excellent recorded sound and very good and informative booklet notes.

– MusicWeb International (Stuart Sillitoe)

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.