Schumann Quartet: Fauré, Martin, Ullmann

The Strad Issue: December 2025

Description: A fraternal quartet once again shows its versatility

Musicians: Schumann Quartet, Hinrich Alpers (piano)

Works: Fauré: Piano Quintet no.1. Martin: Piano Quintet ‘À ma femme’. Ullmann: String Quartet no.3

Catalogue number: BERLIN CLASSICS 0303971BC

Named not for the composer Robert but after three of its members (brothers Erik, Ken and Mark), the Schumann Quartet has an omnivorous appetite for repertoire, from Mozart to Bartók and Schubert to Ives. Following its most recent disc, focusing on works written or premiered in 1923, this eighth release is rooted more broadly in the first half of the 20th century.

Composed before his move to Paris and dedicated to his first wife (of three!), Martin’s early Piano Quintet (1919) receives a convincing performance, with a first movement steeped in melancholy and carried by an intense rhythmic tread. The players bring transparency to the contrapuntal writing and demonstrate a light touch where appropriate.

Ullmann wrote his Third Quartet at Terezín in 1943, the year before his transfer to Auschwitz, where he met his death. There’s a thoughtful stance here that balances abstraction and expression. The slow movement is especially effective: a desolate fugue that somehow hangs like a cloud.

The disc’s main event, Fauré’s Piano Quintet no.1, doesn’t disappoint either. There’s deft rippling and a spiritual elevation in the outer movements and lush repose in between. Above all, the expression always sounds entirely natural, rather than appearing to be shaped externally.

EDWARD BHESANIA