Philharmonic chamber music: String quartets by Schumann and Rihm

The string quartet is chamber music’s ultimate genre. Robert Schumann achieved a master stroke with his Op. 41 cycle, from which members of the Berliner Philharmoniker play numbers 1 and 3. Inspired by the quartets of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, Schumann created a poetic musical cosmos entirely of his own. In Wolfgang Rihm’s Fourth String Quartet, the Composer in Residence focuses on contrasts – sometimes abrasive and passionately fierce, sometimes intimate and delicate.

© 2025 Berlin Phil Media GmbH