Album
Dvořák Piano Quartet
Schumann: Piano Quartets, Märchenerzählungen
Digital services
Catalogue Number: SU 4305-2
Published: 22nd April 2022
Genre: Chamber Music
Format: 1 CD
Dvořák Piano Quartet: Slávka Vernerová - piano, Štěpán Pražák - violin, Petr Verner - viola, Jan Žďánský - cello
Robert Schumann, a versatile, well-educated young artist destined for great things, a man whose music has always amazed with its extent and profundity ... and also a person of delicate psyche, which many a time led him to the very border between life and death. He composed the Piano Quartet in C minor, his first piece of this ilk, at the age of 18, and although, notwithstanding his original intention, he would never remake it into a symphony, he still had it on his mind some 20 years later: "I vividly recollect a passage in one of my works (1828), which I thought was romantic, with a spirit different to that of old music that appeared to me as though opening up a new poetic life." The Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47, already attests to Schumann's compositional mastery, with its idiom inspired by Bach and Beethoven yet speaking in a clearly singular language. The 1853 Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tale Narrations), was one of the composer's last happy creative upswings, written shortly before he attempted suicide by jumping from a bridge into the river Rhine with the aim to put an end to his unbearable mental torment. The Dvořák Piano Quartet's album spans the entire arch of Schumann's work: the beginning, the peak and the end. Just like all his music, it shows how immense beauty is often close to pain and suffering.
Immense beauty and anguish of the soul in Schumann's chamber music
Robert Schumann, a versatile, well-educated young artist destined for great things, a man whose music has always amazed with its extent and profundity ... and also a person of delicate psyche, which many a time led him to the very border between life and death. He composed the Piano Quartet in C minor, his first piece of this ilk, at the age of 18, and although, notwithstanding his original intention, he would never remake it into a symphony, he still had it on his mind some 20 years later: "I vividly recollect a passage in one of my works (1828), which I thought was romantic, with a spirit different to that of old music that appeared to me as though opening up a new poetic life." The Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47, already attests to Schumann's compositional mastery, with its idiom inspired by Bach and Beethoven yet speaking in a clearly singular language. The 1853 Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tale Narrations), was one of the composer's last happy creative upswings, written shortly before he attempted suicide by jumping from a bridge into the river Rhine with the aim to put an end to his unbearable mental torment. The Dvořák Piano Quartet's album spans the entire arch of Schumann's work: the beginning, the peak and the end. Just like all his music, it shows how immense beauty is often close to pain and suffering.
Immense beauty and anguish of the soul in Schumann's chamber music
Reviews
“Les amis du Quatuor Dvořák sont formidables, savourant les harmonies populaires d’un ouvrage où déjà les audaces du futur Schumann paraissent ; écoutez le Presto, écoutez la Romance de l’Andante. Voilà bien un ajout majeur à la discographie schumanienne… Secret de cet admirable ensemble, une vocalité des cordes, une justesse de ton de la pianiste (magnifique Slávka Vernerová), qui trouve aussi la savoureuse poésie des Contes de fantaisie, trésor le plus secret de l’ultime Schumann, joué amoroso, merveille!”
Artalinna, May 2022
“Umso erstaunter ist man beim Hören dieser Musik aus Schumanns Jugendtagen, die schon ein hohes Maß an Kreativität erkennen lässt – zumal in einer so kraftvollen, frischen und stürmisch drängenden Interpretation wie der vorliegenden vom Dvořák Piano Quartet.”
Rondo, July 2022
“There’s no disputing the powerful opening of this album, with the Dvorak Piano Quartet obviously delighting in Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in C minor. The lengthy first movement is an excellent example of how chamber music is to be played…”
American Record Guide, November 2022
“L’excellente pianist Slavka Vernerova et ses partenaires en livrent une interpretation exemplaire d’élan et de limpidité. Des couleurs sensuelles et raffinées s’y allient à une rigueur dynamique et une richesse expressive particulièrement justes… Fuyant monotonie et sécheresse (cf. Glenn Gould et les Juilliard), le Quatuor Dvorak allie une puissance par endroits quasi symphonique à une subtile exploration de la richesse polyphonique et mélodique d’une partition dont le lyrisme fiévreux et immédiat repose en réalité sur une texture dense.”
Diapason, January 2023
“This performance by the Dvořák Piano Quartet seems fine to me—the strings play in tune and they are balanced reasonably well with the piano.”
Fanfare, January 2023
|
Robert Schumann
Piano Quartet C minor WoO 32
|
|||
| 1. | Allegro molto affettuoso | 14:24 | |
| 2. | Minuetto. Presto | 04:09 | |
| 3. | Andante | 06:48 | |
| 4. | Allegro giusto - Presto | 08:22 | |
|
Robert Schumann
Märchenerzahlungen Op. 132
|
|||
| 5. | Lebhaft, nicht zu schnell | 03:17 | |
| 6. | Lebhaft und sehr markiert | 03:03 | |
| 7. | Ruhiges Tempo mit zartem Ausdruck | 04:07 | |
| 8. | Lebhaft, sehr markiert | 04:28 | |
|
Robert Schumann
Piano Quartet E Flat major Op. 47
|
|||
| 9. | Sostenuto assai - Allegro ma non troppo | 09:06 | |
| 10. | Scherzo. Molto vivace | 03:39 | |
| 11. | Andante cantabile | 07:22 | |
| 12. | Finale. Vivace | 07:54 | |