Search - The Lark Quartet :: Schumann Quartets Op. 41, Nos. 1 & 3

A DARKER GLIMPSE OF THE SCHUMANN UNDERBELLY

Melvyn M. Sobel | Freeport (Long Island), New York | 08/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As their catalogue begins to grow and widen, The Lark Quartet still never fails to impress. They seem always in the midst of exploration and rediscovery, whether it's rendering the Borodin string quartets anew, illustrating the breadth and scope of Amy Beach's underestimated chamber works, tackling the modernist bypaths of Aaron Jay Kernis, or illuminating, as they do here, the complex and glorious emotional quagmires inherent every step of the way in Schumann's Op. 41 (Nos. 1 & 3). In the prescient hands of The Lark Quartet, tempi are imaginatively observed, with allegros and prestos pointedly concise and neurotically paced, drawing quite brilliantly on Schumann's penchant for spontaneous mania, and with adagios that teeter on the brink of utter heartbreak and mental exhaustion. Playing of this caliber, sympathy and absolute devotion is, without question, completely absorbing, and is further enhanced by the most realistic and vivid sound. Had The Larks also included the Op. 41, No. 2, which seems inherently possible, as well as critical, they would have soared mightily above all competition.



[Running time: 53:13]"