String Quartet No. 14 in D minor ("Death and the Maiden"), D. 810
String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D. 887 (Op. posth. 161)
La morte e la fanciulla is the Italian name for Schubert's Der Tod und das Mädchen, or Death and the Maiden, so what is recorded on this Italian release is the Schubert String Quartet in D minor, D. 810, whose second movement quotes the melody of that grim song, as well as the String Quartet in G major, D 887. It is a historical reissue, reproducing and remastering performances recorded in 1938 in London. The sound is quite good, with a low level of background noise. And the performances are fine examples of what keeps ...
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La morte e la fanciulla is the Italian name for Schubert's Der Tod und das Mädchen, or Death and the Maiden, so what is recorded on this Italian release is the Schubert String Quartet in D minor, D. 810, whose second movement quotes the melody of that grim song, as well as the String Quartet in G major, D 887. It is a historical reissue, reproducing and remastering performances recorded in 1938 in London. The sound is quite good, with a low level of background noise. And the performances are fine examples of what keeps these small-time reissue labels in business: classic chamber music playing at its best. The Busch Quartet, originally from Germany but resident in Switzerland, Britain, and the U.S. after the Nazi takeover, excelled at the kind of long-line thinking characteristic of sophisticated German music-making, and they brought it with great effect to the generally melodic art of Schubert. The Death and the Maiden quartet, all without being in the least melodramatic about it, is turned into an...
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