Stradivari Quartett - Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Franz Schubert returned to composing string quartets in the 1820s, after four years of focusing on songs which were beginning to gain him wider recognition. His late chamber compositions reveal probably his most characteristic music, full of deep intimacy and profound ambivalence. The ‘Quartettsatz’ (Quartet Movement) presents a turbulent, norm-breaking first movement. If the 'Rosamunde' and 'Death and the Maiden' are the most frequently heard of the quartets of Schubert, his last completed one –in G major –certainly remains his most uncompromising in its vastness, and perhaps his most prophetic of the musical future.

Highly original combination of music for string quartet by Franz Schubert. The mature G major string quartet is combined with the early movement for string quartet D.103 and the late movement in the same key, D. 703.

The Stradivari Quartet performs a wide range of music, while concentrating increasingly on major cycles of works by a single composer and generally spread out over an entire season. This special focus allows the players to achieve an exceptional intensity. During the 2017/18 season, for example, the Stradivari Quartet is exploring Schubert’s output in a series of seven concerts performed at various venues around Lake Zurich. In the course of these recitals different facets of the Viennese composer will be examined that go far beyond the medium of the string quartet. Here, too, it will not just be concerts that the players give but well-planned celebrations designed to bring together composer, musicians and audience and create a single entity –very much in the spirit of the Stradivari Quartet and its aim of coming as close as possible to the famously unattainable optimal best.

Tracklist:
01. Quartettsatz in C Minor, D. 703
02. Quartettsatz in C Minor, D. 103
03. String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887: I. Allegro molto moderato
04. String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887: II. Andante un poco moto
05. String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887: III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace-Trio. Allegretto
06. String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887: IV. Allegro assai