Fitzwilliam String Quartet - Schubert: Late String Quartets. G Major & C Minor 'Quartettsatz' (2021) [Hi-Res]

Having celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2019, it is perhaps remarkable that the Fitzwilliam String Quartet has not already recorded this towering pinnacle of Western music repertoire: Schubert’s String Quartet in G major, D. 887. This revelatory recording on period instruments proves it was well worth the wait! The work’s idiomatic grandeur and overall complexity coupled with its ever-changing tonalities and otherworldly atmosphere call for the sort of stamina that is the privilege of a limited few.

The Fitzwilliams rise admirably to the challenge, demonstrating the characteristic expertise which has defined their recordings over many decades. Inexplicably left unfinished, the C minor "Quartettsatz" rounds off the programme. This chiseled, and yet formally unorthodox, single movement is presented here with its Andante second movement completed by leading Schubert scholar Brian Newbould.