Octo_Russ

Schubert - String Quartet 12 [Lindsay String Quartet]

This is only a one movement String Quartet, commonly called 'Quartettsatz', it's really yet another one of Schubert's 'unfinished' works, after composing this first movement, he just lost interest, not that it means this piece isn't interesting, rather the opposite, he just left it in torso, it makes a great companion piece to the great String Quartet 14 on this disc, that i spoke so highly about last month [19th September 2010], and it lasts nearly ten minutes.

The members of the Lindsay String Quartet on this recording are,

Peter Cropper - Violin 1

Ronald Birks - Violin 2

Robin Ireland - Viola

Bernard Gregor-Smith - Cello

You can certainly hear whiffs of 'Death And The Maiden' in this piece, very much in the opening busy strings [0:00-0:32], this Quartet is also in a Minor key [C Minor], but it soon lightens up and becomes really tuneful, but those busy strings come back again [2:55-3:28], and the sweetness of the following passage is all the more sweeter [3:28+], basically the piece oscillates between this sweet and sour, roughly every minute we get a change, it keeps the interest up, and it would have been good to hear this as a full blown Quartet, but there again maybe only the first movement would be of any true value, maybe it was best to leave Schubert to his own devices, well the darkness wins in this Quartet, as the agitation ends the Quartet [9:21-9:39], a very satisfying makeweight to the main work.

Here's the Amadeus String Quartet playing this movement on YouTube.