LDV17

Schumann composed his op.41 in a single summer, between 4 June and 22 July 1842, around two years after he had (at last) married Clara Wieck. Living in the shadow of this virtuoso pianist, he set out to write the quartets on the advice of Liszt. They were very well received, and earned Schumann the recognition of Clara and of his friend Mendelssohn, whomhe greatly admired. Even if they display a genuine unity, each of the quartets also shows numerous distinctive characteristics. How do you feel these differences in musical terms? They’re like three atmospheres, three successive stages. We feel the first quartet as more philosophical, thanks to the immense influence of the Classical masters. It contains less rhythmic instability than the following two. The second has a plenitude and a freshness we like very much. Each movement of this quartet, unfortunately less often played than the other two, represents a tableau, with very gentle landscapes that offer a maternal, protective aspect (as in the theme of the Allegro vivace, and the Andante); there’s humour, light-hearted virtuoso joy in the finale, yet still with the sensation that drama and instability are never far away (Scherzo). Finally, with the third quartet, Schumann succeeds in emancipating himself through the expression of his own musical sensibility. He is at once more mature and more hypersensitive, but also more audacious. We hope to bring out in this disc three different sonorities corresponding to the different tableaux of these three quartets. 16 SCHUMANN_THE 3 STRING QUARTETS OP.41