Variations
| 1. | Introduction | 00:00:46 |
| 2. | Grieg: Sonata in A minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 36 | 00:28:37 |
| 3. | Bartók: Quartet No. 2 for Strings, BB 75, Op. 17 | 00:29:06 |
PROGRAM
|
Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) |
Sonata in A minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 36 (1882) Jakob Koranyi, Cello; Juho Pohjonen, Piano |
|
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) |
Quartet No. 2 for Strings, BB 75, Op. 17 (1917) Schumann Quartet (Erik Schumann, Violin I; Ken Schumann, Violin II; Liisa Randalu, Viola; Mark Schumann, Cello) |
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Juho Pohjonen
The Schumann Quartett
Pianist Juho Pohjonen is in demand internationally as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber performer. An ardent exponent of Scandinavian music, he has a growing discography offering music by Finnish compatriots such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kaija Saariaho, and Jean Sibelius. Recent engagements include the Taiwan, BBC, and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras; and the symphonies of San Francisco, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Colorado. Pohjonen is an alum of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and enjoys an ongoing relationship with the organization. Pohjonen earned a master’s degree from Meri Louhos and Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He was selected by Sir András Schiff as the winner of the 2009 Klavier Festival Ruhr Scholarship. In 2019, Pohjonen launched MyPianist, an AI-based app that provides interactive piano accompaniment.
The Schumann Quartett has reached a stage where anything is possible, because it has let go of certainties. That includes the audience, which from one concert to the next have to be prepared for all eventualities: “A work really develops only in a live performance,” the quartet says. “That is 'the real thing', because we ourselves never know what will happen. On the stage, all imitation disappears, and you automatically become honest with yourself. Then you can create a bond with the audience – communicate with it in music.” In the near future, their live performances will be enriched by collaborations with artists such as Andreas Ottensamer, Kit Armstrong, Anna-Lucia Richter, Sabine Meyer, Katharina Konradi, Sharon Kam, and Alexey Stadler.
Highlights of the 2025/2026 season include performances in prestigious venues such as the Musikverein Vienna, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, the Cologne Philharmonie, and the Konzerthaus Dortmund. The quartet will also appear at renowned festivals including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mozartfest Bath, and the String Quartet Festival of the Heidelberger Frühling – to name just a few. In February, the third edition of their project “Expedition Mozart” with Kit Armstrong will take place, featuring concerts in Salzburg and La Chaux-de-Fonds. The season concludes with a chamber music tour alongside Lisa Batiashvili in July 2026.
The quartet’s third album, Intermezzo (2018), featuring works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, and Aribert Reimann – recorded in collaboration with soprano Anna-Lucia Richter – was praised nationally and internationally, and received the 2019 Opus Klassik Award in the category of Chamber Music Recording. In 2020, the ensemble expanded its discography with Fragment, a powerful exploration of the work of one of the great masters of the string quartet: Franz Schubert.
To mark the 100th anniversary of radio broadcasting, the quartet undertook a unique project: in autumn 2023, they released an album entirely dedicated to the music of the year 1923. Created in collaboration with Bayerischer Rundfunk, the much-praised recording features works by Alban Berg, Leoš Janáček, Paul Hindemith, and Aaron Copland.
The three brothers Mark, Erik and Ken Schumann have been playing together since their earliest childhood – meanwhile violist Matthew McDowell completes the quartet. The four musicians enjoy the way they communicate without words, and although the individual personalities clearly manifest themselves, a common space arises in every musical work in a process of spiritual metamorphosis. The quartet's openness and curiosity may be partly the result of the formative influence exerted on it by teachers such as Eberhard Feltz, the Alban Berg Quartet, or partners such as Menahem Pressler.
Awards, CD releases – it is always tempting to speculate on what factors have led to many people viewing the Schumann Quartett as one of the best in the world. But the four musicians themselves regard these stages more as encounters, as a confirmation of the path they have taken. “We really want to take things to extremes, to see how far the excitement and our spontaneity as a group take us,” says Ken Schumann, the middle of the three Schumann brothers. They charmingly sidestep any attempt to categorize their sound, approach or style, and let the concerts speak for themselves.