Programme
FRANZ SCHUBERT
String Quintet in C major D. 956
(Martin, Bouchkov, Imai, Helmerson, Kobekina)
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Piano Quartet in E-flat major Op. 47
(Pappano, Jansen, Tamestit, Mäkelä)
- Marc Bouchkov violin
- Janine Jansen violin
- Mihaela Martin violin
- Antoine Tamestit viola
- Nobuko Imai viola
- Frans Helmerson cello
- Anastasia Kobekina cello
- Klaus Hellwig piano
- Antonio Pappano conductor
Schubert’s String Quintet, with its warm two-cellos sound, was completed just two months before his death in 1828, aged 31. A constant succession of changing textures, harmonies and melodic directions, it spans the emotional gamut from last rites to almost barn dance. His trademark smiling through tears quality is also ever-present, beginning with the first movement’s constant flits between major and minor, and climaxing when the fourth and final movement’s apparently triumphant concluding shout is snatched away by a grim, darkening of its final chord. Schumann’s Piano Quartet of 1842 begins with a slow introduction which later gets reprised at its original tempo, creating reflective interludes within the movement’s forwards pulse. After the Scherzo, a tender slow movement ends with a coda where the cello’s bottom string is tuned down a tone, to play a drone over which the others sing a meditative pre-echo of the finale’s three energetic opening chords.