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Schubert / Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet, 1950: Quintet in C major D. 956 / Op. posth. 163

3,137 views · Published 5 December 2018 · 51:58 · Indexed 7 October 2026

Channel: davidhertzberg · 2018 · Music

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Anton Kamper,  Karl Maria Titze,  Erich Weis,  Franz Kwarda, Guenther Weiss

Franz Schubert's final chamber work, the String Quintet in C major (D. 956, Op. posth. 163) is sometimes called the "Cello Quintet" because it is scored for a standard string quartet plus an extra cello instead of the extra viola which is more usual in conventional string quintets. It was composed in 1828 and completed just two months before the composer's death. The first public performance of the piece did not occur until 1850, and publication occurred three years later in 1853. Schubert's only full-fledged string quintet, it has been praised as "sublime" and as possessing "bottomless pathos," and is generally regarded as Schubert's finest chamber work as well as one of the greatest compositions in all chamber music.  The work is the only full-fledged string quintet in Schubert's oeuvre. When he began composing his string quintet, Schubert had already composed an impressive body of chamber music for strings, including at least fifteen string quartets, most of which were composed for domestic performance by his family's string quartet.

Schubert selected the key of C major in a possible gesture to two composers he greatly admired, Mozart and Beethoven, both of whom wrote string quintets in that key, Mozart's String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515 and Beethoven's String Quintet, Op. 29 in C major. According to Charles Rosen, the opening theme of Schubert's work emulates many characteristics of the Mozart quintet's opening theme, such as decorative turns, irregular phrase lengths, and rising staccato arpeggios (the latter appear only in Schubert's recapitulation).

But whereas the string quintets of Mozart and Beethoven are composed for a string quartet augmented by a second viola, Schubert adopts a somewhat unconventional instrumentation, employing two cellos instead of two violas, creating richness in the lower register. Before Schubert, Luigi Boccherini had replaced the second viola with a second cello; however, Schubert's use of the second cello is very different from Boccherini's, who uses the additional cello to create an additional viola line. Alfred Einstein has proposed that Schubert's use of a second cello to enhance the lower strings may have been suggested by George Onslow, who used a double bass in some of his quintets.

Das Streichquintett C-Dur op. post. 163, D 956, ist ein kammermusikalisches Spätwerk von Franz Schubert in vier Sätzen. Es hat die für die Gattung ungewöhnliche Besetzung zwei Violinen – Viola – zwei Violoncelli. Das Streichquintett wurde vermutlich im September 1828 komponiert, zwei Monate vor Schuberts Tod. Es wurde zu seinen Lebzeiten nicht mehr aufgeführt und erst 1853 gedruckt. Das Autograph gilt als verschollen.

弦楽五重奏曲 ハ長調D.956は、フランツ・シューベルト最晩年の室内楽曲。1828年の夏に作曲された。作曲者の死を2ヵ月後に控えて完成された遺作である。1850年になってようやく初演され、1853年に初版が出版された。作品番号は163とされた。

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