Grand Tour: High romanticism, well within reach.

The Grand Tour used to mean an extended visit to Venice, Florence, and Rome (among other prominent European sites) to soak up Roman, early Christian and High Renaissance culture. Today we have a seemingly infinite number of grand tours, some in conjunction with a more recent construct, the Bucket List.

You can visit all 30 MLB ballparks. You can follow the Malt Whisky Trail in Scotland, or thumb through the Michelin Guide in France. Surfers have the Banzai Pipeline, Jaws and Mavericks. Elvis fans have Graceland, Las Vegas, and Palm Springs. Golfers… no, I won’t go there. Let’s just say I was recently embarrassed to witness golfers engaging in quasi-religious buffoonery on the first tee at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. The golfers were not Scottish. I digress…

Chamber music has its own Grand Tour, and it includes a stop at the Piano Quartet in E flat, Op. 47 of Robert Schumann. A Romantic masterpiece, the quartet is possessed of some of the most astounding melodic and contrapuntal invention in all of music. Composed in 1842 in Leipzig, the work pays respect to that other musical titan and Leipzig resident, J.S. Bach. Happily, this stop on tour includes wine by Rôtie Cellars in the very space in which it is made and aged.

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

Piano Quartet in E flat, Op. 47

I. Sostenuto assai - Allegro ma non troppo

II. Scherzo: Molto vivace - Trio I - Trio II

III. Andante cantabile

IV. Finale: Vivace

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Conor Hanick, piano; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Maria Sampen, violin