Schubert: String Quintet in C Major

Wispelwey, Pieter;
Orpheus String Quartet

CCS 6794

The String Quintet in C Major, together with the String Quartet in G Major (D887), the ‘Great’ Symphony in C Major (D944), and the Piano Sonatas in A Major (D959) and B flat Major (D960), represents the climax of Schubert’s instrumental oeuvre. At the same time, the quintet is one of the most remarkable compositions in the entire repertoire of Romantic chamber music. The C Major String Quintet is one of those musical enigmas whose mystery is only deepened by repeated hearings. What inspired Schubert to compose such remarkably beautiful music, and why did no one notice it until the quintet was published in 1853, 25 years after the composer’s death? Our first impulse is to put a dramatic or tragic interpretation on this sequence of events, all the more because Schubert composed the quintet only a few months before his death….

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Channel Classics

04-07-1994

723385679424

Diapason d’Or

Penguin Guide

Penguin Guide