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Name: yehuda salzberg
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Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 at 06:35:19
Text: I would like to comment on Alex's note regarding the "Death and the Maiden" quartet. First of all, I disagree that it is an underappreciated piece - actually, this piece receives numerous performances and has been recorded by every notable quartet .

I tend to agree with Alex about the mediocrity of the third movement. However, I consider the last movement one of Schubert's most intelligent and ahead-of-its-time movements. In many ways this is the exact opposite of what I got used to get from Schubert. Here he puts the emphasis on harmony and structural twists rather than on simple, catchy melodies. In fact, I recall the first time I heard this movement , I thought the first theme to be pretty annoying. By the third listening I completely fell in love with it. Schubert just didn't stop to surprise me. Every time I thought I can guess the next move, he changed direction - major suddenly becomes minor, hectic playing stops unexpectedly, waiting seconds before resuming in a new mood, new themes emerge and old ones transform - in short, simply fascinating. I enjoy this movement anew each time I hear it and find it most adequate and highly rewarding!

Name: Alex McLeod
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Date: Monday, June 4, 2001 at 01:28:28
Text: One of the most evocative pieces ever written, the "Death and the Maiden" quartet, is sadly undernourished. In a fitting reflection of its composer, the quartet was unappreciated in its own time, and only received a single private preformance. It is understandable that the piece, unbalanced as it is, with an extremely weak third and a barely adequate fourth movement is not quite a standard, but anyone who has heard the breathtakingly dramatic first movement and the achingly beautiful variations must agree that this gem of a quartet deserves better than it gets.

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