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Franz Schubert’s only quintet, C-dur Op. 163, created shortly before his death, is considered the greatest masterpiece of chamber music, and after hearing it, you can hardly disagree with this statement. The skill to create a musical cosmos that encompasses all the beauty, love, and wisdom of the world through simple, clear, and concise means is a gift that Schubert was blessed with from birth. By the end of his life, cut short so early, it flourished especially brightly.
For more than twenty years, the C-dur quintet was waiting for its premiere and when it was finally presented to the audience, it had success. One of its earliest admirers was Johannes Brahms, who also turned to the quintet genre, impressed by that music.
His final work could have been the string quintet G-dur, as Brahms stated in 1890, but thanks to the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld his inspiration returned and he composed a number of chamber opuses featuring the clarinet, including the brilliant quintet B-moll Op. 115. The words said above about Schubert’s composition fully apply to it, with the only difference that the musical language of Brahms at the end of the 19th century is certainly different from Schubert’s watercolours.
Choosing between the two masterpieces would be incredibly difficult, but fortunately for listeners, there is no need to choose on March 17.