Search - Schubert, Vienna String Quartet :: Complete String Quartets (Box)

Excellent account of Shubert's complete string quartets

Tom Poore | South Euclid, OH | 03/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a composer of string quartets, Franz Schubert is easy to overlook. Although his "Death and the Maiden" and "Rosamunde" quartets are well known, the rest of his 15 string quartets are underrated gems of chamber music. His early quartets are reminiscent of Haydn and Mozart, but even these are assuredly crafted and worthy of hearing. (There's a delightful letter by Schubert in which he praises his teacher Antonio Salieri for protecting young composers from the example of bad old Beethoven.) And it wasn't long before Schubert found his own voice. His fourth quartet begins with a brooding Adagio that tells us we're not hearing an apprentice composer at work.



The Vienna String Quartet plays with tack sharp intonation and ensemble, and the recorded sound is good. This isn't an overly romanticized account of Schubert: vibrato is restrained, and rhythm is fairly straight on. Others might prefer a more overheated approach. But for me, the Vienna Quartets' more classical style well suits Schubert's music.



A couple of things to note. Amazon's "Product Details" gets the number of CDs wrong: there are six CDs in this set, not four. (The "Listen to Samples" listing gets this right.) Also, you'll sometimes see a new listing of this set come up for a very low price. I bought mine for less than $20, which was a steal. But be careful. My set came with a booklet entirely in Japanese, and this was mentioned nowhere in the listing of the third party merchant I bought from. So if you find a new set listed at a very low price, be aware that you might get burned on the booklet."