[Chamber Music] String Quintets

Composed in September of 1828, during the final weeks of Schubert's life, the String Quintet in C for two violins, viola and two cellos was the composer's last instrumental work and ranks among his greatest accomplishments. Schubert's decision to use a second cello, rather than the second viola (characteristic of earlier quintets), adds to the overall richness of the piece, contributing to a texture richer in the low and mid registers.

Schubert's writing for this string quintet is in fact symphonic, revealing touches of "orchestration" that would have been assigned to winds and brass in one of his symphonies. In doing that, he revolutionized the art of writing for strings. He created sounds that no one had ever created before in a small string ensemble, constantly varying the texture as he did it. There are vast changes of light and color in the piece, as well as great harmonic variation.

Brussels Muzieque presents a new original transcript for string quintet of the Allegretto of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7. The Allegretto was encored at the premiere of the seventh symphony of Beethoven, a huge success in itself, and the movement remained popular ever since. Eduardo Tonietto, Artistic Director of Brussels Muzieque, made the transcript of this famous orchestral work for the string quintet setting.

Enjoy these 2 absolute masterpieces of the Early Romantic period, brought to you by Sylvia Huang (laureate at the Queen Elisabeth competition violin), Nadja Nevolovitch (leader 1st violins Brussels Philharmonic), Monika Mlynarczyk (co-principal viola at La Monnaie/De Munt), Stephanie Huang (laureate at the Queen Elisabeth competition cello) and Eduardo Tonietto (solo cello at the Flemish Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of Brussels Muzieque).