String Quintet (Schubert)
[9] Alfred Einstein has proposed that Schubert's use of a second cello to enhance the lower strings may have been suggested by George Onslow, who used a double bass in some of his quintets.
"[4]: 183 This is followed by music of gradually increasing motion and tension, leading to a contrasting second subject in E-flat, introduced as a duet for the celli.
The juxtaposition of E major and F minor, exceedingly distantly related keys, establishes the importance of the "tonal relationship of lowered second degree" (or flat supertonic) "to the tonic", which is exploited in the third and fourth movements.
[4]: 184 It has unusual technical features, such as the final two notes: the flat supertonic (D-flat) and the tonic (C), played forte in all parts.
[note 1] After Schubert's string quintet was belatedly premiered and published in the 1850s, it gradually gained recognition as a masterpiece.
An early admirer was Brahms, whose Piano Quintet (1865) was inspired in part by the newly discovered work.
[10][11][14][15] Although there is no reason to believe Schubert expected to die so soon after composing the work, the fact that it was completed a mere two months before his death has inspired some listeners to hear in it a valedictory or death-haunted quality.
For John Reed, the quintet prefigures Schubert's death, ending as it does with D-flat followed by C, both in unison and octaves: "As Browning's Abt Vogler put it, 'Hark, I have dared and done, for my resting place is found, The C major of this life; so, and now I will try to sleep.
[3] The second movement's plaintive mood makes it popular as background music for pensive or nocturnal scenes in film.
Examples include Nocturne Indien, Conspiracy, The Human Stain, and Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control.
Among modern recordings, that by Melos Quartet with Mstislav Rostropovich (1977) has been acclaimed, and is notable for the exceptionally slow tempo of the Adagio.
Rostropovich also recorded the quintet with the Emerson String Quartet in 1990, on the occasion of the gala concert celebrating the 125th anniversary of the BASF AG, Ludwigshafen.
