SCHUBERTString Quintet

String Trio

Aviv QuartetAmit Peled, Cello

573891 bk Schubert.qxp_573891 bk Schubert 17/07/2020 08:58 Page 1

8.573891 2

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)String Trio in B flat major, D. 581 • String Quintet in C major, Op. 163, D. 956Vienna has always claimed Franz Schubert as peculiarlyits own. Others, such as Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven,had made their home there, but Schubert was a native ofthe city. Nevertheless his parents had moved to thecapital from other parts of the Empire, his father fromMoravia and his mother from Silesia. Schubert’s fatherwas a schoolmaster, a profession that it seemed likely hisson might in the end follow. As a boy, the fourth of 14children of whom only five survived, he was trained as achoir boy of the Imperial Chapel, under Antonio Salieri,and, in consequence, as a pupil of the Staatskonvikt,where he took a leading part in orchestral activities, as hehad in family chamber music. His f irst survivingcompositions date from 1810, his second year of study. When his voice broke, at the age of 15, Schubert wasoffered a scholarship for further academic study, butrejected this in the hope of being able to devote his timemore fully to music. In 1817 he took the customary shortcourse to qualify him as a primary schoolteacher and thefollowing year joined his father as an assistant in aprofession for which he never showed the least aptitude.Already he had proved prolific as a composer, with aparticular facility in setting words to music and a gift forapt melody. In the course of his short life, however, hewas never to gain full recognition with any officialemployment. Much of his music was performed at privategatherings, to the delight of his friends, in whose companyhe took the greatest pleasure, intermittently deserting theclassroom for the freedom of lodgings shared with hisfriend Schober and later with Mayrhofer. Schubert’s final years were darkened by illness andthe probability of an early death, as a then incurablevenereal infection took its toll. In 1828 there was the firstpublic concert devoted to his music, some of which hadalready been published, while other publishers had begunto show some interest, particularly in more readilymarketable products for the gifted amateur. On hisdoctors’ advice he moved to the Vienna suburb of Wiedento stay with his brother Ferdinand, but in spite of

intermittent bouts of energy, he became increasinglydebilitated and died on the afternoon of 19th November. The B flat String Trio, D. 581 , was written inSeptember 1817, a year after Schubert’s first survivingattempt at the form, an incomplete B flat Trio started in1816. The form itself, with violin, viola and cello, presentsits own particular challenge. Haydn made significant useof it, and Mozart contributed a work in concertante style.Beethoven wrote string trios in both a four-movementform, the structural counterpart of the string quartet and inthe six-movement divertimento style, with alternatingdance-movements. Schubert takes the first as a model,with an opening movement of transparent texture thatfollows the pattern of a classical first movement, with ashift of mode and tonality in the central section, before there-appearance of the principal theme in the original key.The F major slow movement allows fine interplay betweenthe three instruments and is followed by a Minuet framinga contrasting E flat major Trio that allows the viola rathermore prominence. The work ends with a charming Rondo. The C major String Quintet is very different incharacter. It was written in September and October 1828,during the period of Schubert’s final illness, and ismentioned in a letter from the composer to the publisherProbst, who had proved dilatory in the publication of the Eflat Piano Trio, described by Schubert with somebitterness as his Opus 100. Probst showed no interest inthe Quintet, which was finally published in 1853. Thescoring of the work, for two violins, viola and two cellos,follows a pattern used by the cellist Boccherini and by theFrench-born Georges Onslow, grandson of the first Earlof Onslow, both of whose compositions were probablyknown to Schubert. This presents a different texture fromthe more commonly found string quintet of two violins, twoviolas and one cello, as used by Mozart. Critics havedetected in Schubert’s final compositions an attempt bythe composer to secure for himself the succession toBeethoven, whose final C major String Quintet of 1826was not finished.

573891 bk Schubert.qxp_573891 bk Schubert 17/07/2020 08:58 Page 2

8.5738913

Schubert’s splendid Quintet, one of the mostcompelling works in chamber music repertoire, opens withchords with their own implicit degree of increasingtension, followed by dramatic arpeggio figures. The mostglorious of all melodies is initially entrusted to the firstcello, shadowed by the second cello, starting in theunexpected key of E flat major, but moving to thedominant G major. It is a snatch of this melody that opensthe central development, with its complex use of materialthat has already appeared in one form or another. The slow movement moves to E major, with the firstviolin adding its own embellishment to the principal themein the inner parts, accompanied by the plucked notes of

the second cello. The middle section of the movementstarts a journey through relatively distant keys, travellingfrom F minor to a final C major and a return of the firstsection with increasingly elaborate accompaniment aboveand below. An energetic Scherzo is contrasted with asombre Trio, introduced by viola and second cello.Something of the existing tension is dissolved in the finalAllegretto, which nevertheless retains a recurrent elementof the ominous in a movement that admirably balancesand summarises the whole work and crowns theachievement of Schubert.

Keith Anderson

2

W

S

y

T

t

t a

r

T

r

y

y

Amit PeledPraised by The Strad magazine and The New York Times, internationallyrenowned cellist Amit Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting andvirtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. Having performedin many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Halland Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York, The John F.Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., SalleGaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Konzerthaus Berlin,Peled has released over a dozen recordings on the Naxos, Centaur,Delos, and CTM Classics labels. He is on the faculty of the PeabodyInstitute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, andhas performed in and presented masterclasses around the worldincluding at the Marlboro and Newport Music Festivals and the HeifetzInternational Music Summer Institute in the US, the Schleswig-HolsteinMusik Festival in Germany, International Musicians Seminar PrussiaCove in England, and Keshet Eilon in Israel. Peled performs on the onlyknown copy of the ‘Servais’ Stradivarius by Vuillaume (c. 1865). He isrepresented by CTM Classics.

www.amitpeled.com

Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

573891 bk Schubert.qxp_573891 bk Schubert 17/07/2020 08:58 Page 3

8.573891 4

Aviv Quartet Founded in 1997 in Israel, theAviv Quartet (Sergey Ostrovskyand Philippe Villafranca, violins;Noémie Bialobroda, viola; DanielMitnitsky, cello) was awardedthe Grand Prix and four specialprizes at the Third MelbourneInternational Chamber MusicCompetition (1999), First Prize(Amadeus Quartet Prize) at theCharles Hennen Concours,International Chamber MusicCompetition for Strings (1999),the Schubert Prize at theInternational Chamber MusicCompetition ‘Franz Schubertand Modern Music’ (2003),Second Prize and the Inter-national Crit ics Prize at theBordeaux International StringQuartet Competition (2003), andSecond Prize at the PragueSpring International MusicCompetition (1998). The AvivQuartet has performed at leadingvenues worldwide including

Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sydney Opera House, Cologne Philharmonie,Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, The Louvre Auditorium, Théâtre de la ville in Paris, andBeethoven-Haus Bonn. The Quartet recently presented the Beethoven Quartet cycle in six concerts in Geneva. Itsrecordings for Naxos, including works by Hoffmeister, Schulhoff and Dohnányi, have been highly acclaimed for theirfreshness of spirit, vivacity, and outstanding ensemble performance. Aviv, Hebrew for ‘spring’, represents the Quartet’sartistic philosophy of fresh thinking, stripping away artificial coverings to reveal true nature, sharper definition, andheightened awareness.

www.avivquartet.com

573891 bk Schubert.qxp_573891 bk Schubert 17/07/2020 08:58 Page 4