Schubert String Quintet in C II Adagio Part 1

[TheMimifur]

Oh it tears my heart out

[TheLegendofPatrick]

Does it tear your heart out?

[TheJCSandes]

I always thought the Amadeus Quartet 's was the best performance of this piece : but this one is really extraordinary!

[cissou357]

quel incroyable monument !!! quelle émotion !!!

what an incredible monument !!! what emotion !!!

[PhysicalsimForever]

In chamber music here was me thinking Schubert had reached his peak with the String Quartet No. 14, and then I discovered this...the man truly was a genius.

It must have been unfortunate to be composing at the same time as Beethoven and Rossini, but I am glad Schubert has gained a following.

[pipposback2]

what about uploading the other movement pretty pretty please? :)

[TheMimifur]

@TheLastMonarch - you are on the money there. There is another piece almost as eqaul in the tearing the heart out status - Elgar's Nimrod. You may need two brandies.

[catinger]

Sublime!

There are, truth be told, now rods adequately to describe the emotions engendered by this unique masterpiece.

Many,many thanks for posting this.

[markrecinos]

Absolument Beautiful

[playgued]

This is one of the most stunning pieces of music ever. It is beautifully played here. It was the piece Arthur Rubenstein asked be played at his memorial service. The film showing him listening to this piece is such a true joy.

[playgued]

This is one of the most stunning pieces of music ever. It is beautifully played here. It was the piece Arthur Rubenstein asked be played at his memorial service. The film showing him listening to this piece is such a true joy.

[TheMimifur]

TheLastMonarch: Of course it does - tear your heart out. But not because of "Kennith Branaah" as we cry him here in Scotters. It is music that by its very being tears our hearts to pieces.

Mind you, Conspiracy is a fine piece of film making and who wouldn't wonder about Frank Gallagher.

[julianglantz]

I have listened to many different interpretations of this. All are worthy, The Amadeus Quartet version is my favourite, but it's the one I'm most familiar with, and I believe we all have a tendency to 'prefer' the one our ear and sensibilities know best and often, heard first. This is excellent.

Whatever; this is one of the miracles of the whole Classical/Romantic repertoire

[peticanasson]

merveilleux

[Guglio88]

perfect music..

[miguale]

Tous simplement sublime ....

[portgeoff]

superb.

[dotcom97]

Thumbs up if you first heard this piece on the BBC movie "Conspiracy"

[nortellini]

@dotcom97 - good call; it was also the title music to an episode of Inspector Morse, about 20 years ago - stuck in my mind then. Inspector Morse used to feature many excellent pieces of classical music. The spin off Lewis does so similarly, but less varied than when John Thaw played Morse.

[K5H13760]

excellent!!

[suprematismus]

extremely good is the recording with Pablo Casals

[mourrtii]

j'aime l'Adagio ET le scherzo......et toutes les quintettes de Schubert....

<3

[Glencanon4au]

I first heard this piece while watching "The Human Animal," a British documentary by Desmond Morris about the human species. It took me a long time to identify it, because I wasn't acquainted with Schubert at the time. Music this beautiful almost seems too good for the human race. But it was written by a very human being, and this suggests to me that maybe people aren't so bad after all, and that all people deserve the utmost respect.

[gojoe150]

In the movie Conspiracy, Heydrich said that the Adagio "tore his heart out". Heydrich was an accomplished violinist and his father was a musician. I assume that the writers of the movie decided to add the adagio because countless biograghers and friends of Heydrich claimed that only time they ever saw any sort of humanity in him is when he took out his violin. Hitler once said that in order to understand him, one must understand WAGNER. Schubert has nothing to do with the Nazis.

[itsmister2u]

first heard this quintet on a record in 1983. such a beautiful piece.

[Lactoris1]

The sound recording here is impressive, as well as the performers and of course the composer Schubert. But I have just been listening on You Tube to some very capable musicians recorded with inadequate technology and perhaps microphone placement. I am not an expert, but be sure you consider your acoustics and get good results like this!

[mmcrosbie]

I agree that music stands on it's own merits. It is what it is. On the subject of this piece being in movies etc. it was used in one episode of Inspector Morse starring British actor, John Thaw.

[stonecole423]

Emerson Quartet AND Rostropovich? Couldn't ask for anything more...do you have the 1st movement? ;]

[dehondenik]

Enjoy the musik ohne weiteres

[matthewdurocher]

Truly an amazing piece of music, a true masterpiece. So what if its been in movies that depict Adolf Hitler's philosophical beliefs. I don't care. Music is a spoken language...appreciate the music for what it is !!

[speedadapt]

For me as a musicologist, music is generally innocent. The music has no influence on the decision for which kind of presentation it is used.

Music appeals feelings more directly than any other mode of communication. This makes it so easy to exploit it to transfer any message, here sth. like "romantic".

I understand that the film comes to the mind of people who watched it. The reason may be the emotional link, established by the pictures and by the sound. As a German I am very sorry for that.

[raceofficer]

by the way: there a lot of other movies with the same schubert-masterpiece. per example: "eine blassblaue frauenschrift" written by franz werfel (1941). the movie came out 1984 directed by axel corti.

in a movie the director decides which music plays in his film.

i think schubert will have a lot of turns in his grave, when he realize that somebody find a connection between him and the nazis.

another story is wagner and the nazis.

[amonasro100]

It is quiete painfull to read this stupide comments about Schubert and Hitler.

It should not be allowed that anyone can

think of a link between Schubert and Adolf Hitler. And if there is someone a person who believes that Heydrich, Eichmann and so one, where people with a good heart, than I feel very sorry for him.

Get some more lesson in history.

[jthweatt]

I don't think that most people are making a connection between Schubert and the Nazis. This piece is used as incidental music in a very good film called Conspiracy. In fact, I think that the choice of music underscores an important theme in the film, namely, that Heydrich's heartlessness is not lessened by a percieved appreciation for the beauty of this music, and that Eichmann's soullessness is underscored by his disdain for it.

[Montblanc040394]

@jthweatt I could never have put it better myself. A beautiful piece, even in the most heartless and dark of times, it will reassure me of where my heart really is, even if every other part of me disagrees. Your linking of the two themes is possibly the most accurate of which I have seen.

[jthweatt]

In fact, I could easily believe that the scene in the film never happened, or happened in some separate context away from Wannsee, but that it was inserted here to drive home the point of how men like Heydrich and Eichmann were able to compartmentalize or ignore their own heartlessness and soullessness.

But that is just what I think.

[sosseries]

the link is there due to the film and for anyone who has seen the film it will always be in their minds . i know it always will in mine . but not in a bad way for i shall always link it to the 6 million innocent souls who perished and remind me of how truly evil we can be but at the same time how amazing

[amonasro100]

sosseries,

Thank you for your answer. I have not seen the film you are talking about. I supose the film shows horrible things with Jewish people and from the off the music by Schubert is being played.

I understand this combination of Romantic Germany and the reality Jewish people went trough - it is suposed to show the difference between the old Germany and the madness of the Third Reich.

[sosseries]

No . theres no horrible scenes as such , its the story of the conference that decided the jews fate and the musics at the end of the film. if you get the chance you should watch it , very thought provoking

[amonasro100]

Sosseries,

Thank you for answering. I supose you habe seen the film made in the US about the famous "Wannseekonferenz".

The conference is named after the Lake Wannsee in Berlin. The Nazi Government held this conference in January 1942 to

decide the Endlösung ( Final Solution of the Jewish Question).

I hope you have seen the German Film made by German Television. This film is precise and extremely cold.

The American production is not bad - but no comparency to the German one.

[panterahellion]

and I agree that there is a link to it as far as the context with which you present it. There is something about the movie that I do like, I think it is the intelligence of it. No holds barred bare faced showing of how calculating and completely hard hearted they were to the issue.

[panterahellion]

there isn't a link between Schubert and Adolf Hitler. There isn't anyone on this page who said that Eichmann or Heydrich were good people. They said that in the MOVIE Conspiracy, there is a moment of irony that Heydrich could mastermind such a monstrous plan and be soulless in his thought processes while having an ear for such lovely music. YOU need to read the comments. BTW watch the movie.

[anarchopiecrust]

some people think nietzsche's work is affiliated with nazis which is equally ignorant. but people are like that, they choose to believe a portion of what is true to tailor their screwed up views about the world.

[amonasro100]

Es ist grauenhaft all diese dummen Kommentare über das Genie Schubert und den größenwahnsinnigen Hitler zu lesen. Es wäre doch angebracht einen Musiker wie Schubert nicht in Verbindung mit einem Wahnsinnig zu bringen.

Schade, das viele Menschen so wenig Verstand besitzen.

[benets82]

prachtig,hemelse muziek welke je raakt tot het diepste van je ziel

[silverstartrucker]

Heavenly music that reaches into the soul.

[mirandacentaurus]

Scubert died in 1828.

It is grossly unfair to tie him whata Hitler begun to do 1o2 years later!!!!

[mirandacentaurus]

102

[mirandacentaurus]

Again, beautifull

[ravenCLI]

Oui, cest juste ça. Corbeau

[mirandacentaurus]

102, yeqrs, sorry

103, sorry for my mistake

[mirandacentaurus]

Beautiful

[ravenCLI]

The music pre-dates the HBO movie, usw.

Rubinstein chose the addagio for his own funeral ,,,

[mirandacentaurus]

ME TOO!!!!

[drugtito2000]

It's awful to read comments saying that a leading figure in the killing of nearly all european jews had a "good heart" (why should anybody be interested in, to see the bright side of a mass-murder?) while listening this wonderful music! Good for you having read one book, maybe two will be better...

...you spitted on Schuberts grave!

[naraunig123]

Ein Genuss! Viel mehr die Musik als diese leidliche Debatte. Jedoch ist eine gewisse Kunstfertigkeit durchaus festzustellen wenn es einem gelingt von diesem Schubertvideo auf einen Herrn Heydrich zu kommen (ein kreativer Geist sozusagen)!

[mirandacentaurus]

I have read more books than you will ever read In your intransigent life.

you have no lifetime to reach me, and I tell you: This adagio is marvelous!!!

[fajats]

and yet, you have learnt nothing on modesty...

[mirandacentaurus]

It is truly unjust to blame a man who died in 1828, for what happened more than a century later!!!

[nortellini]

"Heydrich had a good heart"? Heydrich was a perpetrator of the Holocaust, you lunatic.

Don't start spouting revisionist theories - and don't try to offset his classical upbringing against his actions. If there is a God, Heydrich is burning in hell for eternity with Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Mengele, Goebbels, Lange, Eichmann etc.

What a shame that to hear a beautiful piece of music I happened to also read this utter nonsense.

[danshorer]

Seemed a bit too majestic, but, Rostropovich brought sincerity and the depth of Schubert's lament back. The coda looses it again. Still, very pure. Though I prefer ABQ with Schiff

[geschwitz4]

This is the best performance ever

[DeadEyeMorgan]

Gorgeous tune...

[kristimkm]

what a beautiful and powerful piece. where can i get the cd

[PhysiqueQuantique]

I am hoping there was a recording made of the whole quintet with this group and this guest artist! What a performance. Such competent group!

[darthdidious]

Of course. I only posted this movement, but the entire recording is available on the Deutchegrammaphon label (that's the cover displayed at the beginning).

[PhysiqueQuantique]

Is it available in Canada?

[darthdidious]

Yes. I live in Canada, and I own the CD. You should be able to find it on Amazon no problem (you may only finding on the US website though.)

[tarantellaonline]

@PhysiqueQuantique

This should be at mid-price by now. The cover art was from the original top price CD version when it was first released in the 1990s.

[shrunkard]

darthdidious,

You realize how many political dissidents were killed by the Nazi regime, right? There was no "spell", it's just that the bad guys had all the guns. Millions of Germans were forced to be complicit by Hitler's fear tactics and thuggery.

To put it into perspective, Hitler only won with 43% of the vote when he was elected Chancellor.

[darthdidious]

I'm not going to let my comments section turn into a debate about Nazi Germany. It's a topic far more complicated that you or I can fathom and as almost everyone has their own opinion on the matter and thinks themselves an expert on the material it would be completely pointless anyway.

My channel is about music. Any more comments that aren't concerned with the music itself will be deleted.

[parfitt21]

@darthdidious

i agree... the only reason that anyone even mentions nazi germany on here is because this song is the song that is played at the end of the 2001 film "conspiracy" when the flims goes through the list of the fates of the 15 nazis who met at wannsee to discuss the final solution to the jewish question.

this is a b eautiful piece of music... it has nothing to do with nazis

[Sunnnnus]

@parfitt21 this is INCREDIBLE! a very powerful movie, I really can't listen to this adagio without feeling what I felt during those scenes. I've seen it over and over again, great perfomance from all those actors... and this is such a beautiful piece! it has nothing to do with that story. still, can't separate the music from the movie, can't explain why. maybe exactly because of the huge contrast between what they represent: beauty and ugliness locked together in order to mess with your soul.

[JvK1791]

You are an idiot. Typical Liberal: reduces everything to the lowest common denominator so that the lowest of society might "understand" something that is above their head. Make no mistake my friend; the comment you posted shows how ignorant you are. He was elected by fear tactics? Please, it boils down to a complicated political situation in which involved the depression, the restoration of German pride, and the utter weakness of the republic during the time.

[yourforte]

Schubert was so daring in writing such a SLOW slow movement. He must've been supremely confident in his own compositional mastery to have written something so slow. I love it that this movement's in E major too - a daring choice of key at the time, bearing in mind that the piece is in C major. This is a beautiful recording. Thank you for posting

[cflute91]

wow, I ADORE this recording!

[sinaia1]

זה לא מן העולם הזה כאילו הגעת כבר לגן עדן

nini

[gaugin1903]

You are right, but as Schubert wrote this music he was in his torments of a dying genius who would have loved to continue living, the same as Mozart as he died, still full of music which both of them couldn't bless this world with.

Elohim took these geniuses to himself out of gelosy, because the human being is not allowed to enter the gan ha-eden in his life in no form, even through music, and because Mozart and Schubert became so divine, elohim took them away from our world. . .

Shalom

[fj5a017]

Why do you come up with fabricated arguments, when it is clear that the only reason why both of them had to die early was that penicillin was not invented then. Very many people died at that age at that time simplybecause medicine was undeveloped then.

[AmateurViolinist]

Dude... I know I shouldn't, but I've got to say, your comment makes you look like an idiot.

[FatherOfThings]

that is specious "Promethian theology" the myth of Promethius is not a description of man's true relationship with G-d.

[simmo303]

This qualifies as one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.

[gmihut]

That shows that-"THAT WAS THE WAY IT WAS AT THAT TIME"- Hope we learn somthing from that and never repeat the brutality of dictatorialship of one man!Romanian Army was part of the games...Nothing more!

[wrobelk9]

I agree

[wrobelk9]

Just to correct my statement, I was replying to Simmo303's statement. This is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written.

[gmihut]

This movie rase the question:if I can trust my doctor or my lawyer,or my elected governement officials!?

[darthdidious]

Well, I suppose this is a topic for a different forum, but maybe I'll just say this. Anybody could have done what the Nazis did, not just doctors and lawyers. You or and I would have fallen under the very same spell as they did. The German people did, and this was the same people that produced Schubert. We might like to think of Schubert as incorruptible, but as Branagh's character showed, even some of the Nazis admired the beauty of his music.

[darthdidious]

...

So in my eyes, it wasn't that these men were doctors and lawyers that they did such terrible things, it was that they were human.

[gmihut]

You absolutlly right about that...as a matter of fact my own father went along with them in Romanian all the way to Sevastopol and foght along germans till they retreat... and he never complain about it...

[gmonkey808]

'the adagio will tear your heart out' comment is ironic. As if he has a heart !!!!

[sosseries]

conspiracy gmonkey808 im with you there

[gmihut]

I think that this is the part plyed in the last part of movie "Conspiracy" with Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci,great movie and the musisc made you to think so much about it...

[darthdidious]

Yea they played this piece. Stanley Tucci's character called it "sentimental viennese shit"

[gmihut]

I think that was Reinhard Heydrich played by Kennethg Branagh who stated that... but anyway they have nothing to say better from ruthless comanders ..all of them DOCTORS or LAWERS,or high rank ministers in governament in SS or Gestapo.

[darthdidious]

No I'm pretty sure it was Stanley's character. Kenneth's was the one who said that "The adagio will tear your heart out." When he leaves the room Stanley's character puts the record on and the adagio starts playing and he turns to the servant and asks "Does it tear your heart out?" Then he says "I've never understood the passion for Schubert's sentimental Viennese shit".

Anyway, I should point out that though there were a lot of docters and lawyers there, Hitler himself was an artist.

[gmihut]

Never mind the PRIESTS!or the POPE !?

..after seeing some of the very corupted ones...

Hmmm!

[Kiddolinfen]

Beautiful. Schubert definitely stood his ground with his contemporaries - even if he didn't think so.

[nogood4242]

"stood his ground with contemporaries"? I know what you mean but i slightly see it differently. On this work Beethoven is not a contemporary and this may have had something to do with the masterpieces Schubert produced in his last year - simply put the greatest achievement I suggest, by any person inany field in such a short period of time. In that he surpassed all, whether contemporaries or not. No chamber piece of music can come close to comparison with the quintet.

[Kiddolinfen]

Yep.

[nogood4242]

This is very good, so is amadeus and chilingirian but casals etc beats the rest hands down - especiall yin this movement. Dont care its monophonic live recording with processed sound by Sony - its sublime.

[mourrtii]

interprété à merveille

[roddwolff]

wonderful

[Rayek145]

They can't touch the Amadeus kwartet version.

[darthdidious]

Haven't heard theirs.

[Rayek145]

It's so good that it becomes to painful to listen to it. Especially the Adagio, I can literally feel Schubert denial, anger and acceptance on his coming death. Amadeus kwartet is the best kwartet around.

[levapk]

Beautiful!

[ReaganRap]

Es zerreißt einem das Herz.