- Schubert composed this piece during September and October of 1828.
- This was one of Schubert’s last compositions (and his last-completed chamber work). He was suffering from his final illness when he wrote it. The month before he wrote this piece, he moved in with his brother Ferdinand at the advice of Viennese court physician Dr Ernst Rinna, who hoped that the country climate in Ferdinand’s suburban neighborhood would be healthier for Schubert than that in Vienna.
- Unlike Mozart and his string quintets, Schubert did not add an extra viola to the string quartet lineup, but rather an extra cello.1
- This work was likely not performed in Schubert’s lifetime, but he may have had a chance to hear it before he died. In a letter to his publisher dated October 2, 1828, Schubert says that the quintet “will be rehearsed in the upcoming days.”2 (Schubert died on Nov. 19, 1828).3
- The Hellmesberger String Quartet, plus cellist Josef Stransky (not to be confused with the conductor of the same name) gave this work’s first performance on Nov. 17, 1850, at the Vienna Musikverein.
- This work was first published in Vienna in 1853.4
Sources
- Maurice J.E. Brown, Eric Sams, and Robert Winter, “Schubert, Franz,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 25, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000025109.
- Egon Vos, Preface to Franz Schubert, Streichquartett C-dur, Opus post. 163, D 956 (Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 2006), iii.
- Brown, Sams, and Winter, “Schubert, Franz,” Grove Music Online.
- Vos, Preface to Franz Schubert, Streichquartett C-dur, iii.
Cut IDs
10860 14948 17983 19620 40242