String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor

Schumann devoted the year 1840 to a prodigious output of songs and spent the following year on an equally intense exploration of orchestral music. In 1842 it was the turn of chamber music, with the rapid production of a mighty handful of chamber masterpieces. Concentrated study of the quartets of Haydn and Mozart resulted that summer in the three string quartets of Op. 41, followed in the autumn by the Piano Quintet, the Piano Quartet and a set of Phantasiestücke for piano trio. The String Quartet No. 1 opens with a poised slow introduction, each instrument entering in turn, before a main “Allegro" whose ambling gait is stiffened by a strongly rhythmic second theme. The driving “Scherzo” is pervaded by an insistent drumming figure, while Schumann’s deep engagement with Beethoven’s late music is evident in the ravishing “Adagio”, whose melody bears a notable similarity to that of the slow movement of his idol’s Ninth Symphony. A scampering “Presto” brings the quartet to its lively conclusion.