A prestigious project: the recording of the complete string\nquartets of Franz Schubert, by the German Diogenes Quartet.

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Volume 1 offers one masterpiece, the famous Rosamunde Quartet in\nA minor, and the early quartet in D major D94. Schubert’s String\nQuartets count among the most frequently performed quartets of the\nrepertoire (only rivalled by Beethoven). These works express\nSchubert’s superb gift as a melodist within the classical structure\nof a string quartet, unique creations of romantic content and\nclassical form.

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The young German Diogenes Quartet has already recorded\nextensively, in rare repertoire of Humperdinck, Haas and Gernsheim\nfor CPO and Brilliant Classics, this new release of “standard”\nrepertoire present their excellent qualities: clear structures,\nlong tension lines, tight and immaculate ensemble playing, and a\npassionate drive to deliver the emotional content of the works they\nlove to play.

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With over 600 lieder as well as sacred, chamber, orchestral and\npiano music to his name, Franz Schubert was one of the most\nprolific and influential composers of his generation – a man whose\nmusic, heavily influenced by the likes of Haydn, Mozart and\nBeethoven, drove critics to later argue whether he was of a\nViennese Classical or Romantic disposition.

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Many of Schubert’s instrumental works remained unpublished\nduring his lifetime, and it was only in the decades following his\nuntimely death that the young Austrian’s genius came to be fully\nappreciated. Schubert is perhaps best known as a song composer, and\nthe first volume of this series focuses on the lyrical qualities of\nhis early string quartets. The disc begins with the 1823\n‘Rosamunde’ Quartet No.13 in A minor D804: rooted in the world of\nsong, the work earned its nickname from the slow movement – a set\nof variations on a theme from the composer’s incidental music to\nWilhelmine von Chézy’s play Rosamunde (written the year\nbefore).

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Also featured is the Quartet in D D94, which, despite its late\nnumbering, is now believed to be one of Schubert’s earliest string\ncreations. Here the dramatic harmonic shifts point to a composer\nwho, even in his teenage years, was already seeking to escape the\nconfines of the Classical period. Formed in Munich in 1996, the\nyoung Diogenes Quartet stands as one of the most acclaimed\nensembles of its generation. Here they perform with aplomb,\ncombining freshness of interpretation with technical mastery to\ncreate superlative readings that document the beginnings of\nSchubert’s chamber music career.

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