Recording
Title: String Quartets 14 "Death and the Maiden" & 15
Performers: Busch Quartet
Year: 1939
Length: 43 minutes
Review
Old recordings can be a good or bad thing. I really dislike them for vocal pieces, for me voice needs to be pretty clean, but in works like this string quartet it gets a certain charm. So I have no problem with this 1939 recording, even if it does not sound as clean as more recent ones, in fact the performance is full of life.
Schubert is a master at String quartets and this is his last one. It is a very long work and also a kind of bitter-sweet one. It goes through quite a number of emotional states, and as befits such a great romantic composer they are all superbly achieved through music.
This is probably not the best Schubert quartet, but it is still good enough to more than justify its inclusion on this list. The sound of the Busch quartet is also interesting enough to make this a really great recording indeed. Recommended.
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
n the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors, parts of the Allegro molto moderato (including the dotted rhythm of the opening) are used as a dramatic measure during several scenes that form central parts of the plot.
Unfortunately could find no video for this.
No comments:
Post a Comment