Schubert: String Quartets, D. 112 & 887

Schubert’s last string quartet, the G Major, D887 (1826), predates his deeply poignant final chamber work, the String Quintet, yet rivals it both in terms of scale and ambition. Its jagged motifs and often unstable harmonies have led several writers to compare the work to Beethoven’s innovative late quartets. Yet, the expressive melodies—particularly the one played by the lead violin and then cello early in the first movement—are highly characteristic of Schubert. More unusual is his widespread use of a technique more typical of orchestral string playing: a rapid shivering or “scrubbing” of the bow over a succession of notes, known as tremolo. The Takács vary these tremolos, creating quite different atmospheres. Sometimes it’s a barely perceptible background—sometimes smoky, sometimes a shimmering haze—to a poignant theme; but in the initially decorous “Andante un poco moto” second movement, it becomes a baleful, threatening cloud of sound, raw anger breaking through a conventional expression of grief. The Takács are likewise sensitive to the sharp accents which punctuate the lightly dancing “Scherzo”, and the unpredictable harmonic progressions of the final “Allegro assai”. The teenage Schubert’s B flat Major, D112 also has moments of darkness, but also a great deal of charm as in the Haydn-style “Menuetto”, which the Takács as veteran performers of that composer’s work play with fluency and wit.