Classical home listening - Schumann and Schubert string quartets and more

The Guardian 0

New releases from the Emersons, the Arod Quartet and Quartetto di Cremona; and at home with Spitalfields Music

• Robert Schumann, who suffered mood swings and periods of severe mental instability, wrote his three string quartets in the “miracle” year of 1842. These Opus 41 works, completed within a few weeks, remain relatively unfamiliar. In their original lineup, and on Deutsche Grammophon, the Emerson String Quartet only recorded one. Now, in a debut recording on the Pentatone label, the Emerson Quartet’s Schumann: String Quartets shows these works in all their variety, intensity and, so often, mystery.