Zehetmair Quartett ROBERT SCHUMANN

The Zehetmair Quartett, whose account of Hartmann and Bartók string quartets on their ECM debut was most enthusiastically received by the international press return with chamber music of Robert Schumann. With their uncanny sense for all the attributes of musical text, the quartet locate the emotional centre of these pieces even  as they illuminate the clarity of the musical architecture in their subtle  and lucid interpretations. In recent concerts, the Zehetmair Quartett has been playing Schumann alongside Bartók and Cage, making a case for the composer’s ‘modernity’, which is also evident in these readings.  As is now well-known, the Zehetmair group commits its repertoire to memory and often plays without music stands in concert, reaching thereby levels of inter-ensemble communication which the Glasgow Herald called “light years beyond close collaboration”. And in these Schumann performances  they also convey, vividly,  the sense of voices in dialogue, arguments worked out in the interplay of parts… (ECM Records)