Two major string quartets by Franz Schubert performed on period gut strings have been recorded by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet and will be released on the Divine Art label in February 2020.  The recording is one of many events and projects set up by the quartet to celebrate its 50^th anniversary season (2018/9) which has seen the quartet so busy that the celebration is extending well into spring 2020!

The new album will contain two of Schubert’s masterful quartets (‘Death and the Maiden’ and the A minor) with a plan to follow this with another two quartets soon – next year if the schedule allows.

“Death and the Maiden” has been shown to be one of the most universally popular of all chamber works – and its composer perhaps the most loved of musical geniuses. But the A minor quartet – often known as “Rosamunde”, after the principal melody of its Andante – is hardly less appealing. The fact that they are both set in minor keys might, however, suggest a predominantly dark and gloomy experience ahead. It is true that in a letter from March 1824 he actually quotes two despairing lines of Goethe: “My peace is gone, my heart is heavy; never, never again will I find rest” – originating, no doubt, in the life-threatening diagnosis of syphilis. Yet the amazing variety Schubert conjures from the constraints of the quartet medium itself ensures that there is something here for everyone: this music can appeal on so many different levels, from the unparalleled pleasure to be gained from the stream of glorious melody, to the sheer intellectual mastery of the composition process. Along the way there is drama aplenty, laughter, tears – and joy! In their 50^th anniversary year, the Fitzwilliam presents these two masterpieces on instrumental set-ups that might have been familiar in 1824 (eg with gut strings), drawing on performing conventions of that time. – a truly authentic “period performance”.

The ‘FSQ’ has made four previous recordings for Divine Art’s labels – another ‘period performance’ ,of quartets by Haydn (Diversions DDV 24151); and in the contemporary music world,  the four quartets of John Ramsay (Métier MSV 25828); ‘Intricate Web’ -works by Liz Johnson (Métier MSV 77206) and the unique fusion of classical quartet and jazz sax (Absolutely! – compositions and arrangements by Uwe Steinmetz) on Divine Art DDA 25112.

Divine Art DDA 25197

Franz Schubert (1797-1828):
String Quartet in D minor, D. 810 (‘Tod und der Mädchen‘)
String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 (‘Rosamunde’)

Recorded at St Martins’s Church, East Woodhay, Hampshire, England in July 2018