The Schumann Trilogy: Concertos & Piano Trios

Isabelle Faust (violin), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano) "Streicher" Wien, 1847) & Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado

In 2014 namen Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras en Alexander Melnikov de pianotrio's en Robert Schumanns concerti op samen met het Freiburg Barokorkest onder leiding van Pablo Heras-Casado. De albums hebben hun stempel gedrukt op de Schumann-discografie: door op historische instrumenten te spelen, leggen de musici totaal onverwachte structuren en klanken bloot. Voor het eerst zijn de drie cd's verkrijgbaar in één box, met als bonus een Blu-ray disc met de uitvoering van de drie soloconcerten en de Ouverture, Scherzo en Finale in de Berliner Philharmonie.

Schumann:
Violin Concerto & Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor, Op. 110
 Isabelle Faust (violin), with Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Alexander Melnikov (piano) & Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado

"This is the first of three volumes designed to showcase Schumann’s music for violin, cello and piano, and with musicians of this intelligence and mutual sympathy, it ought to be worth following."
CD Review - 21st March 2015

"The great advantage of presenting Schumann on period instruments is brilliantly demonstrated here. Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra's urgent account of the orchestral accompaniment affords welcome textural clarity and propulsive rhythmic incisiveness"
BBC Music Magazine - June 2015 *****

Piano Concerto & Piano Trio No. 2
 Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano), Isabelle Faust (violin), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello) & Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado

"Melnikov’s performance of possibly the best-loved of the concertos takes one by the scruff of the neck and gives a good shake – there is nothing nostalgic about his reading...The sound worlds are so different, and yet the calibre of performance is maintained. It is impossible [for me] to fault a splendid achievement."
Early Music Review - 3rd August 2015

"What is especially striking in this charismatic and illuminating interpretation is Alexander Melnikov's capacity to muster such a wide dynamic range and varied palette of timbres from his 1837 Érard fortepiano…if anything the Piano Trio No. 2 is even more compelling. Again, the use of an early 19th-century fortepiano, here a Streicher of 1847, brings textual clarity, enhanced by the exceptionally subtle and sensitive dialogue between the two superb string players."
BBC Music Magazine - October 2015 *****

Cello Concerto & Piano Trio No. 1
 Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano) & Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado

"Queyras’ heroic traversal of the Cello Concerto’s enigmatic lyricism, on a 1696 Gioffredo Cappa with the attentive Freiburgers, should satisfy all who love this endearing score. But for me the high point of the trilogy as a whole is the D minor Trio, played with drive, devotion and acute attention to blended sonority. Hats off to all concerned."
The Strad - June 2016

"Melnikov marshals the crystalline timbres of his 1847 Streicher fortepiano with panache and clarity without in any way sacrificing the urgency of the musical argument … Intimacy also lies at the heart of Jean Guihen Queyras’s interaction with the Freiburger Barokorchester."
BBC Music Magazine - August 2016 ****

Blu-ray BONUS: The Berlin Concert
`The Three Concertos In Concert at The Berliner Philharmonie (March 2014)