Schubert - String Quartet 14 'Death And The Maiden' [Tokyo String Quartet]
In my opinion, one of the two greatest String Quartets ever written, the other being Beethoven's Quartet 7, his first Razumovsky, this Quartet is of course permeated by death, and like the Trout Quintet, also gets its name from a song Schubert composed, and also like that work, an ingenious set of variations are set to the theme of the tune.
This recording is just over 20 years old, but it's still digitally wonderful, of course the Tokyo quartet line up has changed since then, only two remain since this recording.
I always enjoy the variation second movement, it has melancholy, sadness, anger, innocence, and finally acceptance in its five variations, my favourite has to be the middle third variation, it seems to oscillate between loud whooping exclamations, and quiet pleadings, a dialogue going back and forth, which is the whole gist of the conversation between Death and the Maiden, Schubert uses the whole gamut of the range and feeling of the String Quartet in these endlessly enjoyable variations.
Here's the Takacs String Quartet playing the second movement on YouTube.
