The last Schubertiad attended by Franz Schubert took place on the eve of his birthday, January 30, 1828. He was 31 years old and was to live for less than ten months.
Just three years ago, he had sent to Göethe, for the second time, a small collection of his poems set to music and dedicated to the poet. The German bard, also for the second time, turned a deaf ear.
Those were years in which the Viennese society was captivated by the entertaining and joyful operas of the talented Rossini, making the comprehension and understanding of this more complex composer, uphill. Those were the circumstances in Vienna, the composer's hometown, so, little could be expected from the German poet, who apparently was not only deaf but also discourteous.
But not all aspects were negative in those years. Some publishers thought that the 28-year-old composer's works could contain an unsuspected treasure. Little by little, they began to publish their compositions, although without stopping exploiting him, because they paid misery for them. But he was becoming known, and by 1827 he was already a musician who was quoted in foreign newspapers and magazines. There were no economic benefits but "honorary": that same year he was appointed a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Society. And in March of 1828, it was possible to organize a whole evening entirely programmed with music by Schubert, the first one and the last. The concert was a success popularly and financially and allowed Franz to pay off a large part of his debts.
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| Schubert and a couple of friends |
String Quintet in C major - Adagio
One of the greatest works of chamber music of all time was completed only weeks before his death. The work was premiered twenty-two years later, in 1850. And publication occurred ... three years after the premiere.
The work is written for two violins, one viola and unusually, two cellos (the usual thing was to double the violas, not the cellos). It is in four movements, and the complete work lasts approximately one hour.
We present here the second movement, the Adagio. It is in ternary form (A-B-A). A melody developed in the simplest mode imaginable but of extraordinary beauty starts the movement. The central section is intensely turbulent: it breaks suddenly into the tranquility in the distant key of F minor. Towards the end, the initial idea is picked up again, ending in a climate of even more intense lyricism. The work as a whole serves as a tantalizing reminder of what might have been, had Schubert been granted more time to create and innovate.
The rendition is by the chamber group conducted by the Japanese-born German violinist Susanna Yoko Henkel.
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