“You have to have the courage to embrace darkness and, with Schumann, to leap from heaven to hell in a tenth of a second,” says violinist Antje Weithaas. This two-CD set presents Schumann’s complete works for piano trio: the three Piano Trios, Opp. 63, 80 and 110, and the Fantasiestücke, Op. 88. Throughout these works, passion and intimacy, lyrical inwardness and restless energy remain in constant dialogue. Begun in 1842 as Schumann’s first composition for piano trio and revised before its publication in 1850, the Fantasiestücke offer a concentrated, poetic counterpart to the three numbered trios.
The new Deutsche Grammophon recording features violinist Antje Weithaas, cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and pianist Dénes Várjon. All three have established international solo careers while keeping chamber music at the centre of their artistic lives. Their shared musical language, shaped in concert and deepened in the studio, allows them to follow every sudden turn of mood, bringing Schumann’s hidden ideas and the shifting dialogue among the three voices into focus. Released in the year of Antje Weithaas’s 60th birthday, the album offers a portrait of Schumann’s music as powerful and vulnerable, restless and deeply personal.
