Gringolts Quartet - Schumann: String Quartets Nos.1-3, Piano Quintet (2011)

Ilya Gringolts and friends complete their survey of the Schumann chamber music with the string quartets and one of the composer s finest works, the Piano Quintet. Following the so-called Year of Song (1840) during which Schumann poured out almost 140 of his finest Lieder, the newly married composer turned to instrumental music. 1842 was a veritable Year of Chamber Music in which Schumann composed the three String Quartets of Op. 41, the Piano Quintet and Piano Quartet. Although clearly influenced by the late quartets of Beethoven and the quartets of Haydn and Mozart, Schumann s chamber works are masterpieces in their own right. The Romantic sensibility is constantly in evidence in their musical inventiveness, youthful exuberance and poetic sensitivity.