Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 / Five German Dances, D. 90

Description

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)String Quartet No. 15 in G major Five German DancesFranz Schubert was born in 1797, the son of a Viennaschoolmaster, and had his education as a chorister of theImperial Chapel at the Stadtkonvikt. Both at school andat home he had an active musical life as a player and asa composer, and when his voice broke and he wasoffered the means to continue his academic education,he decided, instead, to train as a teacher, thus being ableto devote more time to music. By the age of eighteen hehad joined his father in the schoolroom, whilecontinuing to compose and to study with the old CourtKapellmeister Antonio Salieri. In 1816 he moved awayfrom home, lodging with his new friend, Franz vonSchober, thus released for the moment from thedrudgery of teaching. The following years found himgenerally in the company of friends, with an occasionalreturn to the schoolroom, when necessity dictated,showing there no great talent or interest in his task.Schubert's brief career continued in Vienna andwhile there were occasional commissions and some ofhis works were published, there was never theopportunity for the kind of distinguished patronage thatBeethoven had had and still enjoyed, nor the possibilityof an official position in the musical establishment of thecity. It was February 1828 before Schubert was able totake the risk of a concert devoted to his work, an eventthat proved both successful and profitable, but by theautumn his health had weakened, the consequence of avenereal infection contracted six years earlier. He diedon 19th November.As a composer Schubert was both precocious andprolific. Over the years he wrote some five hundredsongs and a quantity of piano and chamber music,including fifteen string quartets, with larger scale worksfor the theatre and for orchestra, although he never hada professional orchestra regularly available to him, asHaydn had had by the nature of his employment as aprincely Kapellmeister, or as Beethoven had through thegood offices of his rich patrons. He was able to hear hisorchestral compositions in performances by an ensemblethat had developed over the years from the Schubertfamily string quartet, while chamber music on occasionsreceived professional attention, notably fromSchuppanzigh and his colleagues. Schubert himself wasboth pianist and string-player and as a boy had playedthe viola in the family quartet, where his father playedthe cello and his older brothers the violin. The languageof the classical string quartet had long been familiar tohim.The present release includes the last of Schubert'squartets and five Deutsche. The Quartet in G major,Op. 161, was written during the last ten days of June in1826 and published posthumously in 1851. 1826 hadbrought Schubert some success, arrangements withpublishers and a favourable review of his Piano Sonatain A minor, Op. 42, in the Leipzig Allgemeinemusikalische Zeitung on 1st March. The death of Salieriin 1825 and that of the court organist Vori%ek had madecha