Performer: Gary Hoffman

As he does when his spirit is most honestly invoked, Schumann spoke directly across the ages through Moraguès and Pinto-Ribeiro, and in the process allowed the two musicians to reveal the dimensions of their own love for music.

Eldar Nebolsin, Corey Cerovsek and Gary Hoffman did not completely answer whether Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio is chamber music that wants to be a ballet score or vice versa, but the intoxicating beauty of their playing banished all doubts of whether the answer mattered. 

Katya Apekisheva and friends made a persuasive case for Hummel's Piano Quintet to be heard as a transitional grand romantic concerto deserving of belonging in such august company.