Join us for a lush program of chamber music for piano and strings! 

Robert Schumann met Clara Wieck when he was 18 and she was nine. Twelve years later, they married, profoundly influencing his life and Romantic music. Their relationship inspired many of Schumann's works, including the Piano Quintet in E-flat, written for Clara to perform.

Unlike his meticulous friends Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Brahms, Schumann composed in intense bursts of inspiration. The year 1842 was his "year of chamber music," during which he immersed himself in studying Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven's quartets. By July 22, he had completed three Opus 41 quartets. The Piano Quintet, Op. 44, was sketched in just five days and completed by October 12, while the Piano Quartet, Op. 47, was written shortly after.

Schumann was the first significant German composer to write for the piano quintet, a combination previously explored mainly by Luigi Boccherini and later by Brahms, Dvořák, and César Franck. The Piano Quintet blends elements of both concerto and chamber music, possibly inspired by Mozart's arrangements of his piano concertos with string quartet accompaniment. Mendelssohn played the piano part at a private concert on December 6, 1842, and the first public performance, featuring Clara Schumann, took place at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on January 8, 1843.

Cultural Center of Cape Cod, 307 Old Main St, South Yarmouth, MA 02664

General Admission $35 - Children & Students FREE