Schumann/ Wang/ Glemser - Clara & Robert Schumann

Florian Glemser writes: "Are Schumann's late works the product of a household where a physically and mentally declining composer and his wife, who refused to admit that reality, were living in a stuffy atmosphere? Or was Schumann's Düsseldorf circle a fruitful terrain that gave rise to magnificent masterpieces because these close, talented friends - Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Albert Dietrich, Johannes Brahms, and Joseph Joachim - continually inspired one another? For this recording, Sophie and I have chosen a program that attempts to answer those questions. All the chamber music works on this album are from the period between 1849 and 1854, thus stemming from the Schumanns' time in Düsseldorf. The personal and musical connections between Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Joseph Joachim are intrinsically present in all these works. Those biographical relationships are interesting for us as interpreters because they give rise to special moods we can sense in the music. We want to fathom them, to feel them, and to make them palpable for the listener: this is one of the most exciting projects we have ever undertaken as performers."