Schubert: String Quartets no 13, 14 / Guarneri String Quartet

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This is a wonderful record. After 34 years together, the Guarneri Quartet's balance, interplay, beauty, and homogeneity of tone are incomparable. The rhythm is flexible, the phrasing elegant, and the transitions and changes of mood and character seem as natural as breathing. The players' expressiveness is warm, noble, and deeply felt; they bring out every emotional nuance of these late great Schubert quartets. Written in the shadow of death, their somberness only deepened by occasional gleams of sunlight, they represent a triumph of inspired creativity over poverty, ill health, and public indifference. No. 13, suffused with a poignant, wistful yearning, cries out in despair and ends in resignation; No. 14 is dark, dramatic, tense, driven. In both, Schubert uses melodies from earlier works: in No. 13 the Rosamunde theme, in No. 14 not only the song of the title, but also an echo of Erlkonig. --Edith Eisler

Tracks:

String Quartet No. 13 In A Minor, Op.29: Allegro ma non troppo
String Quartet No. 13 In A Minor, Op.29: Andante
String Quartet No. 13 In A Minor, Op.29: Menuetto. Allegretto
String Quartet No. 13 In A Minor, Op.29: Allegro moderato
String Quartet No. 14 In D Minor, D.810, Death And The Maiden: Allegro
String Quartet No. 14 In D Minor, D.810, Death And The Maiden: Andante con molto
String Quartet No. 14 In D Minor, D.810, Death And The Maiden: Scherzo. Allegro moto
String Quartet No. 14 In D Minor, D.810, Death And The Maiden: Presto

Amazon.com

This is a wonderful record. After 34 years together, the Guarneri Quartet's balance, interplay, beauty, and homogeneity of tone are incomparable. The rhythm is flexible, the phrasing elegant, and the transitions and changes of mood and character seem as natural as breathing. The players' expressiveness is warm, noble, and deeply felt; they bring out every emotional nuance of these late great Schubert quartets. Written in the shadow of death, their somberness only deepened by occasional gleams of sunlight, they represent a triumph of inspired creativity over poverty, ill health, and public indifference. No. 13, suffused with a poignant, wistful yearning, cries out in despair and ends in resignation; No. 14 is dark, dramatic, tense, driven. In both, Schubert uses melodies from earlier works: in No. 13 the Rosamunde theme, in No. 14 not only the song of the title, but also an echo of Erlkonig. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews:

Spellbinding and luminous.......2000-11-25

These two beautiful quartets, performed by superb musicians who have collaborated for over three decades, are spellbinding. The Guarneri Quartet has poured its long experience into every note and what results is tremendously moving, astonishing. What a realization of Schubert!

GUARNERI STILL SHINES.......1999-02-03

I find this recording of the A minor and D minor Shubert quartets to be outstanding. In their later years, they go a little slower than they once did, but to the service of the music. Get this recording. you won't be disappointed. The 2nd mvmt of the A minor alone will make you glad you bought it. And the Menuet of the same quartet would surely gain Schubert's approval.

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