Quintette Pour Piano, Op.44 / Quatuor A Cordes No.3, Op.67

Released in 1982 by Deutsche Grammophon, this recording brings together two pillars of the chamber music repertoire: Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44, and Johannes Brahms's String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat major, Op. 67. The album features the acclaimed LaSalle Quartet, renowned for their intellectual rigor and mastery of both the classical canon and the Second Viennese School, joined by pianist James Levine. This collaboration captures the specific interpretive style of the late twentieth century, characterized by technical precision and a deep, structural approach to German Romanticism.

The LaSalle Quartet, led by Walter Levin, established a reputation for their analytical focus and warm, unified sonority throughout their long tenure at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. By 1982, their partnership with Deutsche Grammophon had produced a formidable body of work that defined the reference standard for chamber music enthusiasts. This particular disc is celebrated for the interplay between Levine’s keyboard sensitivity and the quartet’s finely balanced strings, offering a deliberate and nuanced reading of Schumann’s pioneering quintet and Brahms’s final, sun-drenched string quartet.