Robert Schumann composed, almost in a frenzy, his two works for strings and piano during the “chamber music year” of 1842. The quintet Op. 44 and the quartet Op. 47, high lights of nineteenth century chamber music, are works of exuberant energy and romantic internalisation. The piano part which Schumann intended for his newly wedded wife, Clara, is played by Claire-Marie Le Guay on this recording with the Mandelring Quartett.
