Schumann Quartet: Chausson, Vierne

The Strad Issue: February 2025

Description: Late-Romantic French chamber music at its most searing

Musicians: Daishin Kashimoto, Natalia Lomeiko (violin) Yuri Zhislin (viola) Claudio Bohórquez (cello) Éric Le Sage (piano) Schumann Quartet

Works: Chausson: Concert for violin, piano and string quartet, op.21. Vierne: Piano Quintet

Catalogue number: SONY CLASSICAL 19802842662

This disc is a treat for lovers of French Romanticism, especially in this performance of Chausson’s Concert for solo violin and piano with string quartet. Though indebted to Franck (as is the Vierne Quintet) it is unique in concept and outlook. Daishin Kashimoto (first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic) and Éric Le Sage are ideal ‘soloists’ and are accompanied by the Schumann Quartet with equal conviction.

The opening theme is initially darkly suggestive, later boldly heroic; and the second, which acquires a broad sweep, is unadulteratedly perfumed. The symphonic scale is richly embraced here. Just as Kashimoto’s sound is glorious and effortlessly rounded, so Le Sage keeps his powder impeccably dry in the impossibly virtuosic piano-writing. The slow third movement is the other highlight of this work, opening with a solemn violin and piano introduction, and driving the players to sustained periods of impassioned expression.

Vierne’s Piano Quintet, written in memory of his son Jacques who died in the First World War aged 17, is another big-boned work – perhaps less opulent, though its darkly twisting opening theme (almost 12-tone) is ear-catching, and the contrastingly melodic second theme soars. The playing reaches existential heights, matched by a vivid recording, making this an album that might best be enjoyed in a darkened room with a measure of absinthe.

EDWARD BHESANIA