The earliest work on the program, Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47, was written in the fall of 1842, sometimes described as his “year of chamber music.” During this period, he composed not only the Op. 47 Piano Quartet but also his Op. 45 Piano Quintet, three string quartets, and a set of Fantasiestücke for piano trio. Unfortunately, this phenomenal productivity went hand-in-hand with bouts of depression. Robert reportedly found comfort in studying counterpoint with his wife, Clara—an activity made manifest in the E-flat Major Piano Quartet.
Although Robert dedicated the piano quartet to Count Mathieu Wielhorsky, a Russian impresario and cellist, he wrote the work with Clara in mind. After its first private performance in the Schumanns’ Leipzig home on April 5, 1843, Clara wrote in her diary that it was “a beautiful work, so youthful and fresh, as if it were his first.” The premiere, which took place at the Gewandhaus on December 8, 1844, must have been monumental: Clara on piano, Ferdinand David on violin, and Niels Gade on viola (respectively, the soloist and conductor of the premiere of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto), and Franz Karl Wittman on cello. A critic for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung declared the Piano Quartet “a piece full of spirit and vitality which, especially in the two inside movements, was most lovely and appealing, uniting a wealth of beautiful musical ideas with soaring flights of imagination.”
The Piano Quartet’s hymn-like introduction, marked “Sostenuto assai,” is striking, with hushed, sustained chords that give way to a driving Allegro ma non troppo. After a sinister Scherzo comes the heart of the quartet: the gorgeous Andante cantabile, with a cello theme that leads seamlessly into a series of breathtakingly beautiful variations. At the end, the cello tunes the C string to a B-flat, its sustained note grounding the movement’s conclusion. The Finale, marked “Vivace,” merges three-part sonata form with Robert and Clara’s counterpoint games. Furious torrents of imitation drive the quartet to an exhilarating close.
