Schubert: String Quartets 'Rosamunde' & 'Death and the Maiden'

The Artemis enjoy growling, clashing, shivering, and the relentless energy of the last movements. Theirs is an impressive, vividly recorded approach. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2012, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 11th Jun 2012
Catalogue No: 6025122
Label: Erato
Length: 2 hours 9 minutes

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Excerpt, Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D810 'Death and the Maiden'

Work length28:30

Artemis Quartet (string quartet)
Recorded: 2009-07-08
Recording Venue: July 2009 Siemensvilla Berlin, Germany

I. Allegro

Track length15:18

I. Andante con moto

Track length13:12

Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden": III. Scherzo - Allegro molto

Work length4:35

Artemis Quartet (string quartet)
Recorded: 2009-07-08
Recording Venue: July 2009 Siemensvilla Berlin, Germany

Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor D. 810, 'Death and the Maiden': IV. Presto

Work length8:43

Artemis Quartet (string quartet)
Recorded: 2009-07-08
Recording Venue: July 2009 Siemensvilla Berlin, Germany

Excerpt, Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D804 'Rosamunde'

Work length12:29

Artemis Quartet (string quartet)
Recorded: 2009-07-08
Recording Venue: July 2009 Siemensvilla Berlin, Germany

Schubert: Schuubert: String Quartet in A Minor, D. 804, 'Rosamunde': II. Andante

Work length7:19

Artemis Quartet (string quartet)
Recorded: 2009-07-08
Recording Venue: July 2009 Siemensvilla Berlin, Germany

Excerpt, Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D804 'Rosamunde'

Work length16:14

Artemis Quartet (string quartet)
Recorded: 2009-07-08
Recording Venue: July 2009 Siemensvilla Berlin, Germany

III. Menuetto - Allegro

Track length9:07

IV. Allegro Moderato

Track length7:07

Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D887

Work length51:20

Artemis Quartet (string quartet)
Recorded: 2009-07-08
Recording Venue: July 2009 Siemensvilla Berlin, Germany

I. Allegro molto moderato

Track length20:56

II. Andante un poco mosso

Track length11:44

III. Scherzo [Allegro vivace]

Track length8:23

IV. Allegro assai

Track length10:17

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Following the Artemis Quartet‘s prizewinning Beethoven Quartet cycle on Virgin Classics, the Berlin-based ensemble has recorded Schubert’s last three quartets, works that Artemis cellist Eckart Runge praises for both their “incredible simplicity and purity” and their “almost terrifying modernism”.

Awarded both Germany‘s prestigious Klassik ECHO award and France’s Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros in 2011 for their Virgin Classics Beethoven cycle, the members of the Artemis Quartet now release an all-Schubert CD. It presents the composer’s final three string quartets: No 13 in A minor, ‘Rosamunde’ (which draws on his incidental music for Helmina von Chezy’s play Rosamunde); No 14 in D minor, ‘Death and the Maiden’ (with its haunting second movement based on his song Der Tod und das Mädchen), and No 15 in G major.

Schubert and Beethoven were contemporaries in Vienna, and Beethoven is reputed to have returned some of the younger composer’s admiration, but, as Eckart Runge, cellist of the Artemis Quartet points out: “In some senses, Beethoven and Schubert could hardly be more different.” He goes on to say that “The Artemis Quartet’s intensive experience of performing and recording the Beethoven cycle between 2009 and 2011 has provided new perspectives on every other quartet we play. There is an almost terrifying modernism in these three late Schubert quartets, but it is totally different from the modernism of Beethoven. And, when placed together in a programme, the three quartets shine in another light: No 14 is concentrated and dramatic; No 15 is huge, symphonic, and cosmic, and No 13 is introspective and melancholy – less spectacular than the other two.

Reviews

September 2012

The Artemis enjoy growling, clashing, shivering, and the relentless energy of the last movements. Theirs is an impressive, vividly recorded approach.

September 2012

Go straight to D810, Death and the Maiden. The two opening fortissimo motifs are like clarion calls. The Artemis Quartet are tersely explosive, fiery in attack, the sforzandos in the transition stabbing the air...the Artemis enlarge perceptions, push frontiers and perhaps question received wisdom.

1st July 2012

ferocious fortissimos, pianissimos of wonderful delicacy, infinite variety of textures and elasticity of tempo, combined with an implacable pursuit of the musical argument worthy of the divine huntress from whom they take their name. Their unanimity of sound is matched by — and evidently springs from — an extraordinary unanimity of feeling.

14th June 2012

Technically, the Artemis's performances are very fine indeed; their choice of tempi tends towards briskness, but the articulation and sense of phrasing are generally so well judged that only in the first movement of the D minor Quartet, D810, Death and the Maiden, does the result seem just a bit breathless.

Classical Music August 2012

Bold, unflinching readings...that nevertheless offer playing of great delicacy and refinement in quieter passages. With some of the finest Schubert playing on disc...this is urgently recommended.

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Schubert: String Quartets 'Rosamunde' & 'Death and the Maiden'

2 CDs

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