Schumann’s two biggest chamber works for strings and piano date from late 1842. This was his great ‘chamber music year’, following on from 1840, the great year of song, and 1841, which had seen the composition of his first symphony. Although many masterpieces would follow, these three years probably represent the climax of Schumann’s composing career, and were undoubtedly a result of his marriage in 1840 – long delayed, long frustrated – to Clara Wieck, his inspiration, inammorata and finest interpreter.

The Quintet for piano and string quartet is probably the first significant work anyone had written for this combination. The Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello is a line-up with significant precursors in Mozart and Beethoven. Coupling the Piano Quartet and Quintet is always an intriguing exercise because it demonstrates the extent to which these two masterpieces – in the same key, for the same instrumentation take or leave one violin, and composed virtually in the same creative breath – are worlds apart in their mode of expression.

Performing on period instruments requires interpretation that is attentive to period performing practice by means of controlled use of vibrato and dynamic variation. The Michelangelo Quartet achieves its special timbre by the use of natural gut strings fitted on the stringed instruments and by the use of a fortepiano (precursor of the modern pianoforte) on which the strings are struck by hammers covered in leather.