Schubert: A Journey - The Young Schubert

Schubert: A Journey Through His String Quartets

The Edinburgh Quartet opens a new lunchtime series at St Cecilia's Hall, tracing Schubert's string quartets from his teenage years to his final masterpieces across six concerts.

This opening concert marks a handing-over. We begin with Haydn's Op. 77 No. 2 of 1799, one of his last complete works for string quartet, and a work of such poise and wit that it stands as a summation and pinnacle of everything the form had become in his hands. Then we move on to Schubert's Quartet in G minor, D.173, written sixteen years later in 1815 when Schubert was just eighteen years old. It is a youthful work but already shows the dramatic restlessness and poignant lyricism that will come to define his music. We hear Schubert taking up the tradition that Haydn had perfected and beginning to bring it somewhere new. 

Haydn — String Quartet in F major, Op. 77 No. 2
Schubert — String Quartet in G minor, D.173

Join us in the beautiful surroundings of St Cecilia's Hall, Scotland's oldest concert hall, for an hour of extraordinary music.