R Schumann
Piano Quartet; Piano Quintet*
Isabelle Faust (violin), *Anne Katharina Schreiber (violin), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Alexander Melnikov (piano)
Harmonia Mundi HMM902695 54:42 mins
Schumann composed hisThe quartet has always lived in the shadow of its more popular companion, but in many ways it’s a more subtle and original work. Its themes are more flexible and rhapsodic than the sometimes four-square ideas in the quintet, and they’re generally developed more inventively and less repetitively. The is a highly original and seamless piece in which fragments invade the territory of both the contrasting trio sections. Only the somewhat sentimental slow movement disappoints, but even here Schumann conjures up a fascinating idea for the closing moments, where the cello, which has tuned its bottom string down by a whole tone, sustains a low octave while the remaining players anticipate in slow motion the main subject of the finale to come.
