In preparation for quartet composition, Schumann thoroughly studied the quartets of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, plus Mozart's Chamber Music. His aim was to compose works of greater length with formal design and with more than just associative connection between the parts and between the parts and the whole.
Composed in 1842, Schumann produced two related works; op.44 and on this disc, op.47 performed by the Mozart Piano Quartet. Felix Draeseke had a difficult journey as a composer, firstly finding resistance from his family to his chosen profession, and latterly rejection from his audience and peers alike.
He entered the Leipzig Conservatory in 1852, meeting Liszt in 1857 and Wagner in 1861 but it was not until he moved to Lausanne and after Wagner had urged him to study the compositions of Beethoven that his compositions began to gain critical success.
As a result of his study of Beethoven's works, Draeseke gained a virtually unprecedented mastery of counterpoint and led him on a different path of composition, resulting in the composition of the Quintet in Bb Major recorded here.
