Chamber music for strings often takes on symphonic dimensions. This can be seen already in Mozart's string quintets, in which the enlargement of the sonic spectrum by the addition of a second viola is used to masterly effect, The G minor quartet, for example, is a revolutionary work of startling intensity; it is no coincidence that it is written in Mozart's „most personal“ key. In Bruckner's Intermezzo, originally intended as an alternative to the Scherzo of his string quintet, we can see ideas developed in his symphonies appearing in the realm of chamber music.
Schubert for his part announced in March 1824 his intention to „compose another quartet“ in order to „pave the way for a major symphony“. This G major quartet, which was to be his last, was finally composed in just eleven days in June 1826. It is one of Schubert's masterpieces and one of the masterpieces of the whole genre - music of the future, a piece as extreme, radical, uncompromising and yet immensely poignant as could possibly be imagined. What was conceived as paving the way had already reached its goal: the monumental work is nothing less than a symphony for four stringed instruments, yet always remains, despite the orchestral vehemence of its outer movements in particular, chamber music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
String quintet No. 4 in G minor, KV 516 (1787)
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
Intermezzo in D minor for String Quintet, WAB 113 (1879)
– Pause –
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
String quartet No. 15 in G major D 887 (1826)
Nobuko Imai | Viola
Auryn Quartett
Matthias Lingenfelder | Violin
Jens Oppermann | Violin
Stewart Eaton | Viola
Andreas Arndt | Violoncello