United Archives: UAR026

Schubert - Quintets

When the Budapest Quartet came to record The 'Trout' Quintet at the beginning of the 1950s, the ensemble had reached a rare level of excellence. It was by no means Hungarian: based in an American town, it was made up of four Russian musicians influenced by an essentially Germanic style of performing and who were self-confessed admirers of a famous French quartet! The following recording documents the combination of core repertoire with an ensemble that was at the zenith of quartet artistry, played on the exceptional Stradivarius instruments to which the 'quartet in residence' of theWashington Congress Library had access to from the end of the 1920s, courtesy ofthe Gertrude ClarkeWhittall foundation. The rhythmic stringency, phrasing and faultless musicianship of the Budapest Quartet are evident and demonstrate an important tradition, upheld from its creation in 1917 until its break-up in 1967.A redefinition of what chamber music is all about.