Quartet Movement in C minor D.703 (1820)

Quartet Movement in C minor D.703 (1820)

Allegro assai

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

String Quartet in G major K.387 (1782)

Allegro vivace assai

Menuetto

Andante cantabile

Molto allegro

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

String Quartet No.1 in C Op.49 (1938)

Moderato

Moderato

Allegro molto

Allegro

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Piano Quintet in E flat major Op.44 (1842)

Allegro brillante

In Modo d’una Marcia: un poco largamente

Scherzo: molto vivace

Allegro ma non troppo

The “Unfinished” Symphony is by no means the only work Schubert failed to complete. There are all kinds of fragments, including some vitally interesting piano-sonata movements and, most fascinating of all, the tragically inspired Quartet Movement in C minor, which is all the more poignant for its moments of serenity. The beautifully written and perfectly proportioned first movement of an unfinished Quartet in C minor, it represents much the same stage in Schubert’s development as the Quartet in G K.387 in Mozart’s.

The first of the six Quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn in 1785, K.387 is also the first string quartet of his maturity. If it is a little self-conscious, it is no less remarkable for such features as the frequent rhythmic dislocation caused by dynamic emphases on unaccented beats in the first two movements and the eventful harmonies of the Andante cantabile. The Finale, integrating fugue and sonata form to an extent neither Mozart nor Haydn had achieved before, is a structural triumph comparable only to the last movement of the “Jupiter” Symphony.

In comparison with Mozart and Schubert, Shostakovich came late to the string quartet. He did write Two Pieces for string quartet in 1931 but he did not apply himself to his first full-length string quartet - the first in a 15-work series unparalleled in twentieth-century music - until seven years later. He started it not long after his notorious denunciation in Pravda and although, as he said, he had no “particular idea or feeling in mind” it sounds in its freshness and innocence like an escape from that desperately dangerous situation. Originally subtitled “Springtime” it avoids contentious issues, though not without risking some serious thinking in the theme and variations of the second Moderato movement.

Schumann’s Piano Quintet is another first. There might have been an obscure musician somewhere who did it before him, but Schumann was certainly the first major composer to put string quartet and piano together - obvious idea thought it seems with hindsight. Having written little but piano music up to the age of thirty and having then turned to the string quartet, Schumann seems to have set out to consolidate his recent and hard-won mastery in that area by combining string quartet with the instrument he knew best. His joy in the medium is evident from the start of the Allegro brillante with piano and strings all involved in the reckless melodic leaps and liberated harmonies of the first subject. The tenderly expressive second subject introduced by the cello is no less authentic in texture. The slow-moving, dark-coloured descending phrase ominously reiterated at the beginning of the development section puts a temporary stop to the exuberance, which is recovered only at the beginning of the recapitulation.

The reason for the anxiety is revealed by the beginning of the slow movement, a serious-minded march in C minor with a halting melody carried exclusively for the strings. When the piano remembers the ominous descending phrase from the Allegro brillante it provokes another anxiety attack in the central agitato episode and the movement ends in the same funereal mood as it began. The apparent dismissal in the brilliantly scored Scherzo of the fears expressed in the first two movements is confirmed by the finale. The climax of Schumann’s long-term structural strategy is an emphatically conclusive fugato masterfully combining the main theme of the first movement with the main theme of the finale as countersubject. There is still energy in reserve to celebrate the achievement in the coda.

Gerald Larner ©2004

Allegro assai

Schubert started two quartets in C minor, one in 1814 and one in 1820, and finished neither of them. There is particular cause for regret in the case of the later project since the one complete movement is uncommonly inspired in every respect, above all perhaps in its spontaneous expression of emotional unease but not least in its scoring. Bearing in mind that he also wrote forty bars of a second movement, an Andante in A flat major, it is no doubt illogical to examine the Allegro assai for reasons why Schubert abandoned the project. But when it opens a programme which ends with the Quartet in G major, it is not entirely idle speculation to suggest that it wasn’t until 1826 that he was able to cope with the long-term implications of the dichotomy between, on the one hand, the highly effective but essentially orchestral tremolando scoring of the worrying first subject in C minor and, on the other, the pure string-quartet treatment of the sublime second subject in A flat major.

Allegro assai

The “Unfinished” Symphony is by no means the only work Schubert failed to complete. There are all kinds of fragments, including some vitally interesting piano-sonata movements and, most fascinating of all, the wonderfully inspired Quartet Movement in C minor. While it is clear that this Allegro assai was intended as the first movement of a string quartet - as a fragment of a companion Andante in A flat major surely confirms - it is not at all clear why Schubert abandoned the project. Perhaps he was distracted by the two operas he was working on at much the same time in 1820, Die Zauberharfe (which he did complete) and Sakuntala (which he left unfinished). Or perhaps he simply didn’t know how to go on. It could be that he had created something so original and so mature in both expression and construction that, at the age of 23, he lacked the resources to sustain the quality through three more movements. How - he must have asked himself, contemplating a piece so beautifully written, so finely proportioned and so poignantly balanced between anxiety and serenity - do I follow that?