Piano Quartet, and Quintet.
Performed by Alexander Melnikov, piano, with the Jerusalem Quartet.
The Piano Quintet Op. 44 and the Piano Quartet Op. 47 date from a brief period during which Robert Schumann focused his attention intensively on chamber music. These works underline his wish to escape from the solo piano, now too restricted for his overflowing imagination, as he told his wife, Clara.
The Piano Quintet is probably one of Schumann’s most sophisticated works, into which he poured all the creative energy he derived from close examination of similar works by his predecessors, especially Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert. And how wonderful it is for us to listen to the outcome!
These performances by the Jerusalem Quartet and pianist Alexander Melnikov focus on the introspective nature of these amazing works from the Romantic period in Music.
The Observer wrote:
“The Jerusalem Quartet are at the peak of their career, playing with the wisdom of 20 years of experience. In the Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov they have a collaborator of rare musical intelligence as well as virtuosity. “
Here are Hélène Grimaud, Shoji Sayaka, Renaud Capuçon, Lars Anders Tomter, and Mischa Maisky performing the wonderful Schumann piano quintet Op. 44:
And next, here is the Robert Schumann Piano Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 47:
Tags: Robert Schumann, chamber music, Quartet, Quintet, Melnikov, Jerusalem Quartet