A Journey to the Heart 

of Robert Schumann’s Quintet

 

The cycle “A Journey to the Heart of Music” invites audiences to step inside the music — to discover its secrets, its balances and its impulses. Taking a major work of the repertoire as its starting point, it sets out to understand how the piece works, why it moves us, and what it tells us of its time.

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For this session, the guiding thread is Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44, a landmark of German Romanticism. Composed in 1842 — the year Schumann himself called the « Jahr der Kammermusik », the year of chamber music — this quintet marks a decisive step in the history of the genre. For the first time, the piano is no longer an accompanist but a true partner, conversing on equal terms with the string quartet.

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Through this work we will trace the birth of the modern quintet, its sonic balances, its legacies (from Beethoven to Mendelssohn), and its lasting influence on the composers who followed: Brahms, Franck, Dvořák and Fauré.

We will also touch on the historical context of its creation, the musical effervescence of Leipzig, the artistic kinship of Robert and Clara Schumann, the spirit of the Romantic salons, and the reasons why so many composers were fascinated by this unique formation.

Between guided listening, lively analysis and live performance, Les Clés de l’écoute offers a moment of exchange and sharing, in which words illuminate the music without ever stealing the show.

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Quintette Syntonia

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« In France, Syntonia is considered one of the finest chamber music ensembles. They approach the score without apparent timidity and draw a healthy energy from it. Their commanding performance is astonishing, all the more so as they never forget musical rhetoric. Syntonia shapes every passage with incredible expression. » — Uwe Krusch, Pizzicato Magazine, October 2020

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Since 1999, Syntonia has been the only piano quintet formed in France. Its members — violinists Stéphanie Moraly and Thibault Noally, violist Caroline Donin, cellist Patrick Langot and pianist Romain David — combine individual careers with their work as a five: a close-knit human core made of complicity, energy and rigour.

 

Their repertoire and discography reflect a renewed desire to pair the essential masterpieces (Schumann, Dvořák, Franck, Debussy) with the (re)discovery of hidden treasures (Koechlin, Suk, Delvincourt), alongside a marked interest in the music of our time, with premieres by Tôn-Thât Tiêt, Benoît Menut and Olivier Greif. Each new recording is warmly received by the press: Chocs Classica, France Musique’s Choix and the Tribune des Critiques’ Version de Référence, 5 Diapasons and Diapason Découverte.

 

Freshly graduated from the Paris CNSM, they won the Tina Moroni Prize at the International Competition of Florence in 1999. Since then they have performed in prestigious festivals and concert halls: the Grand Auditorium of Radio France, the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron, Pâques à Deauville, Classique au Vert at the Parc Floral, the Festival de Saint-Denis, the Scène Nationale of La Passerelle in Saint-Brieuc and the Arsenal in Metz, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Cité de la Musique, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Les Grands Concerts in Lyon (Salle Molière and Salle Rameau), the Salle Poirel in Nancy, and La Scala Paris.

 

The quintet was in residence at the Fondation Singer-Polignac from 2011 to 2016 and contributed to the Paris National Opera’s « 10 Mois d’école et d’opéra » programme. It is a regular guest on numerous radio programmes (Générations France Musique le live, Plaisirs du Quatuor, Un mardi idéal, the France Musique Festival) and has filmed « Les Salons de Musique » for Arte Live Web.

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Their next recording, devoted to the quintets of Gabriel Dupont and Gabriel Pierné, will be made at the Arsenal in Metz and released in January 2027 on Alpha Classics.