Schumann: Piano Quartet & Piano Quintet
Alexander Melnikov (piano)
Jerusalem Quartet
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, July 2012, Chamber Choice
What makes [Melnikov's] playing so remarkable is an ability to achieve an ideal balance...Melnikov blends his tone to match exactly that of the strings...Naturally the Jerusalem Quartet is a...
Schumann: Piano Quartet & Piano Quintet
Alexander Melnikov (piano)
Jerusalem Quartet
Purchase product
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, July 2012, Chamber Choice
What makes [Melnikov's] playing so remarkable is an ability to achieve an ideal balance...Melnikov blends his tone to match exactly that of the strings...Naturally the Jerusalem Quartet is a...
About
The Piano Quintet Op.44 and Piano Quartet Op.47 date from a brief period during which Schumann focused his attention intensively on chamber music (between June 1842 and January 1843). These works underline his wish to escape from the solo piano, now ‘too restricted’ for his overflowing imagination, as he told Clara. The Quintet, which made a powerful impression on Wagner, is probably one of his most sophisticated works, into which Schumann poured all the creative energy he derived from meticulous examination of similar works by his predecessors, especially Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert.
Alexander Melnikov joins the Jerusalem Quartet, nominated for a 3rd BBC Music Magazine Award in 2012.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
-
BBC Music MagazineJuly 2012Chamber Choice
July 2012
What makes [Melnikov's] playing so remarkable is an ability to achieve an ideal balance...Melnikov blends his tone to match exactly that of the strings...Naturally the Jerusalem Quartet is a hugely responsive partner in this process...With a recording that offers depth of sound and admirable clarity, Schumann's two chamber masterpieces are brilliantly served.
June 2012
these performances are marked by great sensitivity and freshness as well as having a natural rhythmic flow that is by no means always the case in recordings of these two masterpieces...an immensely satisfying addition to the catalogue. A combination of ardour and control characterizes the supremly musical approach here, with extremely well-judged balance between piano and strings and a strong sense of direction.
8th July 2013
These recordings...show them to be strong, lusty advocates of immortal music.
29th April 2012
While the piano quartet has great vitality and charm, the quintet is on a different level of achievement: a fiendish pianistic challenge as well as a masterpiece of the genre... In the Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov they have a collaborator of rare musical intelligence as well as virtuosity. Another award contender? I guess so.
