Thursday, 22 January 2009

236. Franz Schubert - String Quartet in D minor, D810, "Death and the Maiden" (1824)


















Recording


Title: The Late String Quartets, String Quintet
Performers: Emerson Quartet
Year: 1987
Length: 37 minutes

Review

Another great chamber piece by Schubert, but this one marks a turning point in Schubert's life and career. Shortly before composing this he had learned that he suffered from syphilis, so he was not in the best of moods.

There clearly is something very dark in this piece, frustrated and desperate but of great power. This is sad Schubert, nothing could contrast more with the Schubert Fifth Symphony or the Trout quintet.

The bucolic quality is replaced by a sense of impending doom here, very expressionist in feel, it feels fully Romantic in tone. An amazing piece of music which ties in with Schubert biographical facts perfectly.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The second movement is a theme — taken from his macabre song Der Tod und Das Mädchen (D 531 in Deutsch's catalog) — and five variations, with coda

First part of the first movement:



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