Composer: Franz Peter Schubert
Performer: Fitzwilliam Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Linn
Catalogue: CKD673
Release: 2021
Size: 1.29 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
String Quartet No. 12 in C minor (fragment), D703 ‘Quartettsatz’
01. I. Allegro assai
02. II. Andante
String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D887
03. I. Allegro molto moderato
04. II. Andante un poco moto
05. III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) – Trio (Allegretto)
06. IV. Allegro assai
Having celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2019, it is perhaps remarkable that the Fitzwilliam String Quartet has not already recorded this towering pinnacle of Western music repertoire: Schubert’s String Quartet in G major, D. 887. This revelatory recording on period instruments proves it was well worth the wait! The work’s idiomatic grandeur and overall complexity coupled with its ever-changing tonalities and otherworldly atmosphere call for the sort of stamina that is the privilege of a limited few.
The Fitzwilliams rise admirably to the challenge, demonstrating the characteristic expertise which has defined their recordings over many decades. Inexplicably left unfinished, the C minor “Quartettsatz” rounds off the programme. This chiseled, and yet formally unorthodox, single movement is presented here with its Andante second movement completed by leading Schubert scholar Brian Newbould.