Classical Music | Music for Quartet

Recorded on 10/08/2014, uploaded on 04/06/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The great String Quintet in C Major is the crown jewel in Schubert’s mighty collection of chamber works.  Universally cherished by performers and audiences alike, the quintet depicts the delicacy, strength, angst and beauty of the human spirit like no other work in the instrumental repertoire.  Schubert’s decision to write a string quintet makes perfect sense: his quartet writing had reached a point of such immensity of content that the addition of one voice seemed like the logical next step. He was very fond of Mozart’s viola quintets, where the additional viola reinforced the upward balance of the ensemble and provided warmth of sound.   He was also aware of Boccherini’s cello quintets, where one cello was featured as soloist far above the second cello.  Schubert chose instead to exploit the potential of two celli as equal partners.  The result is a sound unparalleled in the chamber music literature.

The first movement opens in C major with the upper quartet of players, and is followed by a statement stepped up to D minor by the lower quartet. The exposition is highlighted by the arching second theme cello duet in E-flat major. Here, Schubert’s expansive thematic writing is heard in all its splendor, featuring the tenor singing of the two celli.  The development features contrapuntal lines running throughout the ensemble, and segues to a more active and energy-packed recapitulation.

The vast second movement is an ABA form, with two divinely peaceful outer sections framing an angst-filled middle section.  In the opening A section, the peaceful stillness in the inner three voices serves as a backdrop for the searching first violin theme and plucked responses of the second cello.  The approach of the unrelenting and stormy B section of the movement is signaled with a tutti trill, lifting the texture from E major up to F minor.  The return to the A section music offers an emotional refuge, but the altered first violin and second cello lines serve as reminders of the storm just weathered.

The dense voicing of the scherzo adds to the energy of the third movement and helps in creating a rich and unified sonority.  Schubert creates a feeling of rhythmic stability with groupings of four bar phrases, allowing the music to rollick predictably.  The highlight of the movement is the noble and reflective trio, led by the viola and second cello.

The finale was inspired by the Viennese dance music of Schubert’s childhood.  The lilting first theme, while having a great deal of energy, is charming and unhurried. Schubert’s various pairings of instruments in duet is highlighted by the cello duets accompanied by transparent arpeggiated triads in the upper three voices. The movement closes with a double coda, first marked piu allegro, and then moving up to piu presto.         (notes by Kurt Baldwin)

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String Quintet in C Major, D. 956      Franz Schubert

The period of time between Beethoven’s death in March 1827 and his own in November of the following year, Franz Schubert produced his richest and most profound works among which include the last three piano sonatas, Winterreise, the “Great” Symphony and the String Quintet in C major. Indeed, even a cursory examination of these works leaves one regretful that Schubert’s life was so tragically cut short. The last named was Schubert’s final chamber work and the only instance of a string quintet in his oeuvre. It was composed during the summer of 1828 and completed either in September or October. As with his last piano sonatas, Schubert submitted the Quintet to the publisher Probst. Probst, however, was seemingly only interested in the composer’s songs and shorter piano pieces, reinforcing the notation that despite growing public acclaim for the composer, he was still largely seen as a composer capable only in these lesser genres. Surely had time allowed, the Quintet along with its companions would have bolstered Schubert’s reputation as a serious and mature composer. Though Schubert in his letter to Probst mentioned rehearsals of the work, the Quintet would go unperformed and unpublished for roughly the next two decades. It was finally premiered in Vienna in 1850 and published in 1853.

Though Schubert’s models for the Quintet in C major were Mozart’s K. 515 quintet and Beethoven’s op. 29, he opted for the unconventional scoring of an additional cello instead of the more usual second viola. Here, only Luigi Boccherini served as a precedent, yet Schubert’s treatment of the additional cello was quite different, moving beyond the simple treatment of setting the first cellist apart as a soloist, to creating a rich and dense middle to bass register. In turn, Schubert’s Quintet served as an inspiration for Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet, with both works sharing a prominent semitone motif.

Set out on a symphonic scale, the movements of the String Quintet are for the most part quite conventional. Broad and expansive in a manner that reminds one of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, the first movement alone takes up one-third of the Quintet’s length. The following Adagio in E major, though not as lengthy, is also a spacious movement. In a ternary design, the outer sections seem to float effortlessly in a world of eternity. The central episode in the distant key of F minor, however, is violently turbulent and makes its presence felt even in the reprise of the E major opening. The Scherzo is energetic and makes quite a noise with the open strings of the lower instruments. The Trio, on the other hand, slows in tempo and returns to the otherworldly sound of the Adagio. Youthful and building off the Scherzo’s endless vitality, the Hungarian-influenced finale creates a remarkably lively conclusion to the work and reminds us that Schubert was but still on the precipice of youthful creativity and artistic maturity.         Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.