Schumann: String Quartets

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Robert Schumann's three string quartets, Op. 41, of 1842, are hardly obscure, but they receive less attention from performers than the contemporaneous Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44, or any number of Schumann piano pieces. They are well known to the Emerson String Quartet, who have performed them many times and released them on this 2020 recording; it's the group's debut on the PentaTone label, which gets splendid sonic results from a pair of U.S. college concert halls. Listeners who like high-octane chamber playing are sometimes annoyed by the Emerson, which tends toward a more restrained style, but whatever the overall merits of the case, the Emerson has something to say with the Schumann quartets. Influenced as they were by Beethoven, what gives the quartets their piquancy (and this is increasingly being seen as true of Schumann's music in classical forms in general) is the way they depart whenever they can from Beethoven's models. The Schumann of the fantastic piano music seems to peek his head out, and this is where the Emerson excels. Plenty of groups bring more driving Beethovenian rhythms to these work, and the Assai agitato second movement of the String Quartet No. 3 in A minor, Op. 41, No. 3, but these versions would miss the considerable rhythmic subtleties of the movement, which was where Schumann was at his most forward-looking in his chamber music. It's the same way throughout: the Emerson's deliberate approach reveals many details to those listening in the right frame of mind. The second-movement variation set in the String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 41, No. 2, is also worth sampling: the unique structure resulting from the balance between the variations comes through beautifully here. For true chamber music lovers, a major find.

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