Quartets: Schubert G major, Mendelssohn unpublished, Mozart "Hoffmeister"

Last Sunday I continued the experiment of having morning chamber music, and I have to say, I do like the experience of playing the viola while awake. :-)

Since it was morning, I suggested we start with the Schubert G major string quartet, D. 887.  This is Schubert's last string quartet, and I think an absolutely beautiful work (I know, I say that way too often, but still!)   It feels to me that it doesn't get played that often, and I think there's an obvious reason for that: it's a perfect example of what Schumann called "himmlische Länge" (heavenly length).  This is one long string quartet, and tiring: it's filled with tremolos which can take significant energy to play.  I had thought this might be the longest string quartet ever written, but apparently it doesn't crack the top five.

In this quartet, you get lots of what you'd expect from Schubert: abundant modulation, and flipping back and forth between major and minor modes.   And gorgeous melodies!  But I think my favorite moments are in the second movement, where the first violin and viola share a two-note interpolation that remains fixed as the entire quartet modulates further and further away.  One example is around 2:20 in the YouTube clip: see if you can hear what I'm talking about.  It always sends shivers down my spine!

Next, I got another piece crossed off my life-list, the Mendelssohn String Quartet in E-flat major, written in 1823, when Mendelssohn was about 14 years old, but not published until well after his death.  Even though it's on both the recordings I have of the complete Mendelssohn string quartets (Melos and Pacifica), it's not included in the standard Peters Edition parts, and was therefore difficult to find.  I finally had to order it from Ourtext in the UK (a wonderful place if you're looking for obscure chamber music, by the way: very cheap, even with international shipping)

And I think it was worth getting and playing.  It's uneven; the final movement is a fugue, which, while it has its moments, feels very much like a student exercise.  But the other three movements are fine, particularly the slow movement, about which the first violinist remarked, "he already had that lyrical thing down, didn't he?"  And through the miracle that is the rampant copyright violation on Youtube, you can listen to the entire quartet yourself. :-)

We probably should have stopped at that point, but no one said "no", and everyone was playing so well that I was reluctant to move on to lunch.  We finished with the Mozart "Hoffmeister" Quartet in D major, K.499.   This was definitely "a quartet too far", though: we were dragging by the end.  But Mozart is always a delight to play.  But, as sometimes happens, I wanted to ask Mozart, who often played viola in quartets, what fingering he could possibly recommend for certain passages.  Either Mozart had very large hands, or a very small viola. :-)