String Quartet Movement C Minor Op. Posth. D 703

Par SCHUBERT FRANZ. String Quartet A Minor D 804 Op. 29 'Rosamunde'. String Quartet C Minor D 703 'Quartett-Satz' and fragment of the second movement. Study score. Also available set of parts BA5614. The New Schubert Edition is a scholarly-critical complete edition reflecting current knowledge of the sources and the latest research findings. It is thus indispensable for the study and authentic performance of Schubert 's music./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

From my life-In a letter of 12th April 1878 (i.e. when he had already lost his hearing) the composer declares that his design was to symbolize the course of his life in this quartet.1st Movement: Love of art in youth the unsatisfied longing for something inexpressible also a presentment of approaching mis-fortune.2nd Movement: Quasi Polka refers to a merry youth during which Smetana enjoyed dancing passionately and wrote dances with ease.3rd Movement: Largo sostenuto the felicity of his first love for the girl who later became his wife.4th Movement: Illustrates his perception of national music and the joy of success only to be suddenly broken by the extend E in the highestregister the fatal note that sounded in the composer's ear just before his deafness. Painful remembrances of the first stages of his career a fleeting ray of hope then ultimately resignation to inescapable fate.

Though conceived as four separate movements my second string quartet has a single motif which is common to them all. This is the three-note 'Muss es sein?' from Beethoven's last quartet Op. 135. But whereas Beethoven's theme is notated G E A flat thus giving it an F minor connotation I have sued an alternative spelling - G E G sharp - which suggests an ambiguous E minor-major. This ambiguity in fact becomes the tonal basis of the whole work only to be resolved at the end of the final movement.Each movement begins with a variant of the basic motif on the cello. The first has the original form of the theme while the second has a 'majorised' version which is alsoexpressed as a chord. The third movement with its 'scherzoid' middle section reverts to the major-minor ambiguity of the first and the finale begins with the 'majorised' version as an ostinato accompaniment on pizzicato cello.The slow movement is sub-titled 'In memoriam DSCH' and concludes with a quotation of Shostakovich's motto - D E flat C B - which is basically the same as Beethoven's with the addition of one note.This is not to imply that the work contains no other thematic material. One important theme a rising fifth and a second is also common to three of the movements and is ultimately derived from my first quartet Op. 1 of 27 years earlier to which this second contribution to the form is in many ways like a sequel. Like the earlier work too this quartet is dedicated to my wife.

'Quartet In C Minor' is in four movements with a total duration of about 25 minutes. The opening Allegro is similar in style to Dvorak in its lyricism though there is a darker more brooding atmosphere towards the close. It is tempting to detect a hint of folk-song in the theme of the Andantino played by the viola but that may be stretching hindsight too far. The movement has a wistful melancholy that carries over into the following Intermezzo a song-like episode containing some of the most virtuosic writing in the work. The last movement is a theme and six variations with a fugal ending. The theme is ballad-like with a suggestion of 18th-century elegance. Modalitycreeps into the second Adagio variation and there is rhythmic exhilaration in the succeeding Presto. What can be admired in this attractive quartet is its conciseness. This String Quartet was his first major composition of any kind.