Fiona Maddocks 

Schubert: String Quartets D87 & D887 – review

The Cuarteto Casals shine in these two great works bookending Schubert's career, writes Fiona Maddocks
  
  


The excellent Spanish ensemble Cuarteto Casals, who won the London International String Quartet competition in 2000, bring supple radiance and flair to these two works which span Schubert's brief career. The early Quartet No 10 in E flat major D87 opens with a deceptively uncomplicated Allegro moderato followed by a short, spiky Scherzo, song-like Adagio and sunny, cheeky Allegro. No 15 in G major D887, closer to the world of the great String Quintet D956, is weightier and more poignant. It launches with a terrible yell of anguish, followed by some agonised harmonic uncertainties before finding calm, major-key affirmation. But the unease remains throughout, to the light-dark finale. Does music come any better?

 

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