In the early 1800’s, as a youngster, Franz Schubert played string quartets with his parents and siblings. He would always play the viola part.
Years later, until his death at age 31, Schubert composed more chamber music that included heavenly piano trios, string quartets, quintets and octets.
Schubert composed the String Quartet in G minor No. 9, D. 173, in just eight days in the spring of 1815, a year that also saw the completion of two symphonies, two piano sonatas, numerous songs, and a considerable amount of music for the stage.
After the piece’s private “premiere” shortly after its composition, it remained more or less neglected until its public premiere half a century later at a concert in the fall of 1863.
Despite the quartet’s early date, it bears a number of features that speak to the composer’s maturity and innovation.
The first movement seems at first glance to disrupt the sonata form in a rather blatant way, with the briefest of development sections and the highly unusual use of the relative major key of B flat at the beginning of the recapitulation.
The Andantino second movement is quite clever. Again, a short quasi-developmental passage separates the end of the exposition from the beginning of the recapitulation by only a few bars. And here again, the recapitulation begins in an unusual key: E flat.
The final movement articulates a kind of rondo form with almost unceasing rhythmic energy.
Here is the charming 4th movement from this quartet:
