Pablo Massa wrote:

>My friend Miguel asked me, some days ago, about good recordings of
>Schumann's chamber music, excepting lieder cycles and piano solo music.
>As I'm not a fanatic of Schumann's chamber works, excepting these two last
>categories, I couldn't recommend him more than a few releases by the Beaux
>Arts Trio, and the piano quintet by Serkin/Budapest.  I suppose that many
>people in the list knows a lot about the subject, and I would like, then,
>some recommendations.

With pleasure!  For years I have been hoping to find a set of the complete
string quartets of Schumann.  Finally I found a boxed set on Hungaroton
Classic HCD 12918-19 of ALL THREE quartets played beautifullly by the
Takacs Quartet.  In addition, there is a performance of the Trout Quintet
of Schubert with Zoltan Kocsis on this set.

I am also very fond of the Complete Schumann Trios as performed by the OLD
Beaux Arts Trio (Pressler, Cohen and Greenhouse) and the two-cd set from
Philips, a budget set (456-323-2) also includes the Piano Quartet with a
yummy cello solo, and the Piano Quintet.  The extra violist is Samuel
Rhodes, and the extra bass player is Dolf Bettelheim.

The violin and piano sonatas are also wonderful. A knockout cd with
Argerich and Kremer is not to be missed!

Mimi Ezust <[log in to unmask]>