Florian Glemser asks...are Robert Schumann’s late works the product of a household where two married composers, one physically and mentally declining and the other refusing to admit that reality, were living in a stuffy atmosphere? Or was their Düsseldorf circle a fruitful terrain that gave rise to magnificent masterpieces because close, talented friends and family members – Robert, Clara Wieck Schumann, Albert Dietrich, Johannes Brahms, and Joseph Joachim – continually inspired one another?

"For this recording, Sophie [Wang] and I have chosen a program that attempts to answer those questions. All the chamber music works on this album are from the period between 1849 and 1854, thus stemming from the Schumanns’ time in Düsseldorf. The personal and musical connections between Robert, Clara, Johannes Brahms, and Joseph Joachim are intrinsically present in all these works. Those biographical relationships are interesting for us as interpreters because they give rise to special moods we can sense in the music. We want to fathom them, to feel them, and to make them palpable for the listener: this is one of the most exciting projects we have ever undertaken as performers.”