Schumann, Piano Quartet

The chamber music of Robert Schumann (1810-1856) makes up a relative small portion of his large corpus of works. An extremely accomplished pianist, his compositions focus heavily on that instrument: works for solo piano, a piano concerto, and an enormous body of songs with piano accompaniment. In his chamber works also (with the exception of the string quartets), Schumann tends to give prominence to the piano.

He wrote several early string quartets in 1828-1832, but it was not until 1842 that he completed a series of mature chamber works, three string quartets, (op. 41) a piano quintet (op. 44), and a piano quartet (op. 47). (The video featured below bears an inexplicable reference in the title to the date 1786.)

Schumann was in one of his periods of depression in 1842. He had finally married Clara Wieck in 1840 after years of her father withholding permission. And 1840 had been an astoundingly productive year known as the “year of the song.” But Clara’s reputation as a pianist exceeded his own, and although Clara would sublimate her career to Robert’s, it was clear that he was in many ways living in her shadow. They began the year on tour together, but Robert left early and returned home to Leipzig alone immersing himself in a study of the quartets of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.

His spirits improved with Clara’s return, and he would then complete the chamber works mentioned above along with his piano trio Phantasiestücke (op. 88) in what became known as “the year of chamber music.”

Clara played such an important role in Schumann’s life and music (and he in hers) that you really can’t study one without the other. We present much more in greater detail in our Composer Showcase series with entries for both Robert and Clara.