GREAT RECORDINGS phase 16

SCHUBERT: String Quartets Nos.14 ‘Death
and the Maiden’ & 15
Busch Quartet

3 61588 2 (Angel: 3 61589 2)
Recorded 1936 & 1938
Mono/ADD
74 minutes

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‘All these years on, this account of Schubert’s D minor Quartet brings us closer to the heart of the work than any other I have ever heard. The same must also be said of the G major Quartet, a performance of surpassing beauty which reveals more of the depth and humanity of this score than any more recent recording.’ (The Gramophone)

In 1912 the great violinist Adolf Busch (1891–1952) arrived in Vienna from his native Germany to lead the Konzertverein Orchestra and, more importantly for posterity, its new quartet. The quartet made an auspicious debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1913, but it was not until after the Great War, when Busch reformed his group in Berlin, that the Busch Quartet rapidly established its international reputation (eventually unassailably) on the European mainland.

The Quartet first visited Britain in 1930 and soon gained popularity here. By 1932 they had embarked on a famous series of recordings for HMV, including the two classic Schubert recordings on this Great Recordings reissue. By 1939 the Busch Quartet had reached its peak but, as another war loomed, the players sought another lease of life in America. The group was finally disbanded when Adolf Busch fell ill in 1951.

From the start, the Busch Quartet played a leading role in promoting the music of Schubert, whose string quartets had been all but ignored during the composer’s lifetime. These famous recordings of the last two quartets, recorded nearly 70 years ago, demonstrate why the Busch Quartet were such powerful advocates of this music. Indeed, they remain so, as a recent endorsement from a BBC Radio 3 survey of all currently available recordings of the G major Quartet testifies.