Following the Artemis Quartet‘s prizewinning Beethoven Quartet cycle on Virgin Classics, the Berlin-based ensemble has recorded Schubert’s last three quartets, works that Artemis cellist Eckart Runge praises for both their “incredible simplicity and purity” and their “almost terrifying modernism”.

Awarded both Germany‘s prestigious Klassik ECHO award and France’s Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros in 2011 for their Virgin Classics Beethoven cycle, the members of the Artemis Quartet now  presents Schubert's final three string quartets: No.13 in A minor, ‘Rosamunde’ (which draws on his incidental music for Helmina von Chezy’s play Rosamunde); No.14 in D minor, ‘Death and the Maiden’ (with its haunting second movement based on his song Der Tod und das Mädchen), and No.15 in G major.

Schubert and Beethoven were contemporaries in Vienna, and Beethoven is reputed to have returned some of the younger composer’s admiration, but, as Eckart Runge points out: “In some senses, Beethoven and Schubert could hardly be more different.” He goes on to say that “The Artemis Quartet’s intensive experience of performing and recording the Beethoven cycle between 2009 and 2011 has provided new perspectives on every other quartet we play. There is an almost terrifying modernism in these three late Schubert quartets, but it is totally different from the modernism of Beethoven. And, when placed together in a programme, the three quartets shine in another light: No 14 is concentrated and dramatic; No 15 is huge, symphonic, and cosmic, and No 13 is introspective and melancholy – less spectacular than the other two."

“Schubert has an incredible simplicity, while Beethoven’s quartets are more elaborately structured”, he continues. “The genius of Schubert’s simplicity comes from the lied – fundamentally, Schubert thinks in terms of a singing melody over a bassline and a harmonic accompaniment. That approach is rarely found in Beethoven’s quartets, which are packed with themes, counter-themes, motifs and structural elements. Schubert’s writing holds its own challenges: his purity, his focus on a single idea, means that the music is reduced to the essence of expression. You would expect that simple conception to presuppose a short form, but he succeeds in creating lengthy works … The G major quartet lasts 50 minutes!”