Robert Schumann

Zehetmair Quartett

The Zehetmair Quartet’s fresh, spontaneous approach to chamber music proved thrilling on their previous ECM account of Bartók and Hartmann and is every bit as revelatory on this 19th century "core repertoire" – it’s as if they return the poetry and immediacy to this much played music of Schumann’s. The Zehetmair Quartet "makes it new". Voted Album of the Year at the Gramophone Awards

Featured Artists Recorded

July-August 2001, Radio Studio DRS, Zürich

Original Release Date

10.02.2003

  • Streichquartett Nr. 1 in a-Moll op. 41/1
    (Robert Schumann)
  • 1Introduzione. Andante espressivo - Allegro08:45
  • 2Scherzo. Preso - Intermezzo03:37
  • 3Adagio05:25
  • 4Presto05:33
  • Streichquartett Nr. 3 in A-Dur op. 41/3
    (Robert Schumann)
  • 5Andante espressivo - Allegro molto moderato06:36
  • 6Assai agitato05:49
  • 7Adagio molto07:01
  • 8Finale. Allegro molto vivace06:30
Gramophone, Record of the year
Gramophone Award 2003
Gramophone, Editor’s Choice – Record of the month
Gramophone, Critic’s Choice
BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s Choice
The Strad, Selection
Hi-Fi News, Record of the Month
Diapason d’or de l’année
Diapason, diapason d’or
Le Monde de la Musique, Choc du mois
Classica, Les meilleurs disques de l’année 2003
Recommandé par Classica
Nouvel Observateur, Selection
Stereo, CD des Monats
 
The violinist Thomas Zehetmair, who enjoys a major solo career, may be the first among equals in his recently formed string quartet, but he has inspired all three of his colleagues to play with the provocative, protean expressivity that he shares with so many of today's most distinctive young virtuosos. They certainly have the right touch for Schumann, giving his music a liquid, seamless flow that's charged with an incisive awareness of structural detail.
The New Yorker
 
Schumann's string quartets occupy a somewhat marginal place in the quartet repertoire. Listening to this CD, I wondered why. The level of invention is amazing, and for a man so wedded to the piano Schumann handled the medium with tremendous assurance. But the vividness of the music owes much to these electrifying performances. This quartet produces just the right emotional climate of fluttering, yearning expressivity that the pieces need. And they can be fiery when needed.
The Times
 
This is difficult music to interpret, nervous, fragile and notoriously unresponsive to heavy-handedness. Zehetmair and his players are never heavy handed. They dart or cajole, bend the musical line, vary their tone, their vibratos and dynamics. And they take Schumann's printed indications to heart, markings such as "assai agitato", which they read as breathless, uncertain, even a little frightened. These are wonderful performances, far too good to leave the Second Quartet waiting out in the cold. ECM please take note.
Rob Cowan, The Independent
 
Every so often a recording comes along that is so alive and spontaneous that it is like being in the room with the performers. Of course, live recordings often have a special edge given, as it were, by the presence of the audience at the time. This extraordinary recording of two of Schumann's string quartets - works dedicated to Mendelssohn - was made in a studio in Zurich but has all immediacy and thrill of a live occasion. One of the secrets of the rapport between these four players who periodically relinquish their solo careers and gather for a period of intensive study and performance is that they dispense with the music and, like concerto soloists, play form memory. It's an unusual practice for chamber musicians but it clearly pays off because these performances crackle with excitement.
James Jolly, Gramophone
 
Die brüchige, zerrissene romantische Seele legt das Zehetmair Quartett in Robert Schumanns Streichquartetten 1 und 3 schonungslos frei. Selten hat ein Ensemble die Klangschichten zwischen äußerster Zerbrechlichkeit und inständiger rhythmischer Impulsivität so radikal erkundet. Eine Aufnahme, die ebenso zu denken wie zu genießen gibt!
Michael Eidenbenz, Tages-Anzeiger
 
Unter den Früchten aus Schumanns so genanntem "Kammermusikjahr" finden sich die Streichquartette op. 41. Das Zehetmair-Quartett mit dem Primarius Thomas Zehetmair, dem Geiger Mathias Metzger, der Bratscherin Ruth Kilius und der Cellistin Françoise Groben hat jetzt zwei der Quartette eingespielt. Aus dem ersten a-Moll-Quartett mit seiner verhaltenen Innerlichkeit wurde eine beeindruckende musikalische Visitenkarte der vier. Man hört aufeinander, die Mittelstimmen kommen zu ihrem Recht und alle atmen wunderbar mit der Musik mit. Auch beim effektreicheren, außerordentlich poetischen dritten Quartett in A-Dur begeistern die vier Musiker durch große Klarheit der Interpretation und nie nachlassende Spannungsbögen. Locker werden sie auch mit den vertracktesten Rhythmusverschiebungen fertig. Eine Referenzaufnahme.
Dagmar Zurek, Financial Times Deutschland
 
Robert Schumann beabsichtigte, Kammermusik zu schreiben, die "sehr fein, klar und geistreich" sein sollte. Das Zehetmair Quartett hat diesen Anspruch ultimativ eingelöst: Die Transparenz dieser Aufnahmen ist einzigartig, sowohl tontechnisch als auch interpretatorisch. Wie mit Röntgenblicken können wir nun eindringlich Momente betrachten, in denen Robert Schumann im vollkommenen Einklang mit sich war.
Hans-Dieter Grünefeld, Neue Musikzeitung