Composed 1842; 22 minutes

Schumann composed all three quartets of his Op. 41 during an intense seven-week period in the summer of 1842. “The thought of the string quartet gives me pleasure,” he had written years earlier. “The piano is getting too narrow for me. When composing now, I often hear a lot of things that I can barely suggest.” To prepare, Schumann analyzed classical quartets by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, often playing them in four-hand versions with his wife Clara, an acclaimed pianist. He also organized private ‘quartet mornings’ at his lodgings, where Gewandhaus Orchestra players read through new quartets.

The second quartet, the shortest and least performed of the three, opens radiantly. Its first movement unifies the four instruments in seamless melody, based almost entirely on a single theme, with only slight hints of a second – an approach reminiscent of Haydn. The slow movement features five variations on its theme, with varied phrase lengths and harmonic structures. The slow movement of Beethoven’s Op. 127, sharing the same key, meter, and structure, appears to be Schumann’s model. “One seems to have lingered not 15 short minutes, but an eternity,” Schumann said of Beethoven’s movement—a sentiment equally apt for his own Andante. The brief Scherzo is a will-o’-the-wisp piece, full of violin arpeggios and Beethoven-like rhythmic dislocations, with a rustic trio.  The industrious finale recalls the energy of Schumann’s ‘Spring’ Symphony from the previous year. A tender rising-and-falling phrase punctuates the movement, borrowed from Beethoven’s song cycle To the Dearly Beloved. Schumann wove this motif into several works of the time as a symbol of his love for Clara.