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Sarah Walker presents Schubert Plus with music performed by the Carducci Quartet, recorded at St Mary's Church, Hay-on-Wye, during the 2023 Hay Festival. Schubert composed his String Quartet D87 in November 1813, just a few weeks after he’d completed his first symphony. This was a period when he was living at home with his parents, and had just begun studying at the Imperial teachers’ training college. This was also a time when under the guidance of the composer Antonio Salieri, Schubert was working on a number of string quartets, as well as his second opera Des Teufels Lustschloss. There is an expressive, singing quality which can be heard in this youthful quartet.

In the second half of the concert, the Carducci Quartet perform Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E flat major. Composed in 1834, and in four movements, it was based on an unfinished piano sonata the composer had begun around five years earlier. It is an adventurous and expressive work, and yet the quartet received only one performance. Mendelssohn never composed in this form again, possibly due to her brother’s criticism of her quartet.

Carducci Quartet
Matthew Denton, violin
Michelle Fleming, violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola
Emma Denton, cello

Schubert: String Quartet No 10 in E flat, D87
Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E flat, H-U 277

Produced by Luke Whitlock