Schubert: String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major, D87

For their first incursion into the works of Schubert on disc, the members of the Cuarteto Casals invite us to discover two quartets situated at the two extremes of the composer's life. Wrongly dated much later on its publication in 1830, the Quartet in E flat is in fact the work of a 16-year-old musician who had just entered teacher training college . . . Whereas its companion here was to be Schubert's very last quartet. Only 13 years separate the two pieces! But in the meantime a whole world had invaded his musical consciousness, and here the naivety of G major throws a deceptive veil over inner upheavals.

In the final years of his brief life, Franz Schubert wrote some of the greatest chamber music in the literature. Yet these masterpieces, including three string quartets and a string quintet, remained virtually unknown for a quarter of a century after his birth. It was only when Josef Hellmesberger began his subscription quartet concerts at the Wiener Musikverein in 1849 that Schubert’s true stature began to be appreciated, so that people no longer saw him as a kind of amiable Biedermeier figure, scribbling songs on table napkins or scraps of paper, but as a major composer. This 2CD set, issued as part of a survey of the Vienna Philharmonic Quartet’s Decca recordings, include the familiar ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet, the little ‘Quartettsatz’ and the sublime String Quintet (with cellist Richard Harand). These recordings have historic significance, as the last gasp of a Viennese style of string playing in Schubert which stemmed from before World War II. All, except for D.810, make their first international appearance on CD. This recording of the String Quintet was, incidentally, chosen by Sir Colin Davis as a chosen recording on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.

The International Hugo Wolf Society of Vienna allowed this ensemble, founded in 1993 at the Vienna University for Music, to use the composer’s name. Shortly after, the quartet won the Fifth International String Quartet Competition in Cremona. What sets this quartet apart is its keen and insightful programming of the music of the Viennese Schools.

Profil are proud to present their latest release; a collaboration between Daniel Müller-Schott and the Vogler Quartet of string music played to the highest standard. Classics Today have praised Müller-Schott for his “awesome virtuoso brilliance” and The Guardian rate the Vogler Quartet “in the highest category of contemporary string quartets.” On a previous release The Guardian also wrote: “They play with a wonderful expressive ease and warmth and possess the unteachable knack of being able to communicate everything they do directly and unaffectedly. Their performances are marvels of eloquent phrasing and subtle co-ordination, instinctive music-making of the very highest class.”