I don’t know about Schumann, I think he’s not my thing. The Juilliard String Quartet is supposed to be the top quartet, but even that makes no difference. The Quintet in E flat major is the best on this record, and for that you have to go through two records of, honestly, boring music.
I was a bit surprised to see Glenn Gould in this company. He’s mostly known for his recordings of Bach. The famous American pianist didn’t even like most of the romantic composers, so what is he doing here? Gould was quite the eccentric by the way: he used to hum the melody while he was playing it, to the frustration of sound engineers and audience alike. Beautiful playing, if you could stomach the ‘groans and croons’.