The last volume in the Kodály Quartet's cycle of Schubert's complete music for string quartet will primarily appeal to listeners who have heard the previous discs in this seven-disc cycle or listeners who have a yen for string chamber music by the teenage Schubert. The biggest piece here is the strenuous String Quartet No. 5, a two-movement work consisting only of Allegros written when the composer was 16. The best piece here is the energetic String Trio in B flat major, a single-movement Allegro written when the composer ...
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The last volume in the Kodály Quartet's cycle of Schubert's complete music for string quartet will primarily appeal to listeners who have heard the previous discs in this seven-disc cycle or listeners who have a yen for string chamber music by the teenage Schubert. The biggest piece here is the strenuous String Quartet No. 5, a two-movement work consisting only of Allegros written when the composer was 16. The best piece here is the energetic String Trio in B flat major, a single-movement Allegro written when the composer was a mature 19. The most charming works are the delightful Five Minuets and Six Trios written, like the quartet, when the composer was 16. The most disappointing piece here is the wayward Quartettsätz in C minor. Not the famous C minor Quartettsätz, D. 703, from his 23rd year, but an earlier single-movement sonata-form work without a title from Schubert's 17th year, this Quartettsätz starts with a portentous Grave, but soon switches to a strongly imagined but not quite cogent...
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