We at Challenge Classics are proud to present the complete edition of Schubert's symphonies in the interpretation offered by Jan Willem de Vriend conducting the Residentie Orkest Den Haag. - Even among experts, these symphonies were regarded as second-rate copies of the great Viennese classics. de Vriend's exceptionally fresh and pulsating interpretation, however, decisively corrects the old prejudices and points to Schubert's own emerging symphonic concept (Crescendo - DE - on CC 72739, vol.1 I soon became accustomed to the sheer brio of de Vriend's approach, which included striking variations in volume, decisive accents and many lickety-split finales... combination of delicacy, decisiveness and drive (Fanfare - USA - on CC 72802, vol.2) ... The feeling is of musical values leading at every point. (BBC Music Magazine - UK - on CC 72863, vol.3) The enchanting opening theme of Symphony No. 5 sets what will be the preponderant tone, vigorous and elegant, and that agreeably bracing idiom is maintained throughout both symphonies. (BBC Music Magazine - UK - on CC 72803, vol.4)
Schubert: The Complete Symphonies (4 CD Set)
$24.99
CD
Challenge Classics
Aug 16, 2024
CC 72997
Schubert: String Quartets, D. 887, D. 703
Evil Penguin
Available as
CD
$16.99
May 08, 2026
Schubert's late string quartets are important for their unprecedented emotional depth, formal expansion, and daring harmonic language. They transform classical quartet traditions by infusing them with romantic intensity, confronting themes of mortality, inner conflict, and lyric beauty. Through large-scale structures, stark contrasts, and expressive unity, these works reshaped the expressive possibilities of chamber music and influenced the development of the Romantic quartet tradition.
Belcea Quartet - The Complete Warner Classics Edition
WARNER CLASSICS
Available as
CD
$39.32
Apr 21, 2023
Today one of the most highly respected string quartets, the Belcea were established in 1994 at the Royal College of Music in London and studied with the Chilingirian, the Amadeus, and later the Alban Berg quartets. Today one of the most highly respected string quartets, the Belcea were established in 1994 at the Royal College of Music in London and studied with the Chilingirian, the Amadeus, and later the Alban Berg quartets. They recorded for EMI Classics across nearly a decade, between 2000 and 2009, bringing about tremendous versions of quartets by Schubert, Britten, Bartók, and Mozart, to name a few.
"The Belcea Quartet throw every fibre of their beings into the most vivid projection of the masterpieces they undertake." - The Independent "These recordings form a crucial part of our life as a quartet and we hope that over the ensuing years they haven't lost their freshness and sense of adventure." - Krzysztof Chorzelski, violist of the Belcea Quartet
Belcea Quartet - The Complete Warner Classics Edition
$39.32
CD
WARNER CLASSICS
Apr 21, 2023
WCL721143.2
SCHUBERT: THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS
MIRARE
Available as
CD
$22.01
$22.00
Feb 11, 2022
As a young chorister, the fourteen-year-old Franz Schubert penned his first string quartets, a genre that he would continue to explore until the last years of his life. Fifteen quartets, of remarkable originality and bewitching lyricism, entered into history, bearing at once the legacy of the Classical Era and a vision of the future. These works are marked by the tides of life - disillusion, illness, but also the flourishing of a magisterial mind. "The communion with a confidential soul, the discovery of indescribable colors, the admiration of a remarkable message whose ideas never cease to evolve and inspire... This is part of a distinctive journey that will leave an everlasting mark upon us. The recording of the Octet two years ago was just the initial building block of a project dear to us, one that we now see fulfilled through this immersion dedicated to Schubert."
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SCHUBERT: THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS
$22.01
$22.00
CD
MIRARE
Feb 11, 2022
MIRR588.2
GHOSTS
ACT MUSIC
Available as
Vinyl
$30.81
Dec 23, 2022
For Pianist Michael Wollny, songs are like ghosts. His new album "Ghosts" is a gathering of some of the ghosts that regularly haunt him. Typically for Wollny, they range from classics like Franz Schubert's "Erlkonig" to jazz standards, film music, songs with a certain fragility by Nick Cave, say, or the band Timber Timbre, and also include his own darkly evocative original compositions.
GHOSTS
$30.81
Vinyl
ACT MUSIC
Dec 23, 2022
AECT9956.1
Homage - Mozart: The Haydn Quartets / Alexander String Quartet
Foghorn Classics
Available as
CD
$37.99
Jan 01, 2004
Immaculate professionalism … huge and telling ensemble experience, instrumental mastery practically faultless … Classical elegance and textural clarity.
This triple-CD set was originally published in 2004, but has recently been reissued, presumably to coincide with the Alexander String Quartet's newest CD, a not altogether inspiring collection of not altogether inspired arrangements of music by George Gerswhin and Jerome Kern.
The ASQ cannot go wrong with Mozart, though, and they do not. This is Mozart arguably at his finest in six works of sparkling imagination, style and technique, inspired by the six Quartets op.33 with which Haydn had recently opened new musical doors. Three years separate the first and last, an indication that Mozart spent a for him unusually long time working on them, a fact he confirmed in his dedication to Haydn when they were published in 1785.
In the last few years the ASQ have made many recordings for Foghorn Classics - to date there have been some 15 releases, including several double- or triple-discs. Their most important recordings have been the complete Quartets both of Beethoven, twice - with the current line-up for Foghorn on CD-2005 and with three-quarters the same ensemble in the Nineties for Arte Nova Classics - and of Shostakovich, on Foghorn again (CD-1988, CD-1991). Needless to say, each cycle met with considerable acclaim.
Individually, Mozart's 'Haydn' Quartets have been recorded countless times by every string quartet worth its salt. More importantly, there have also been numerous cycles of the six together, with or without additional works, and some of these are indisputably better deals than this Foghorn, which is dear by any standards - the equivalent, in fact, of three full-price singles. To cite merely top-rankers: the Alban Berg Quartet (7 CDs, EMI 5855812; alternatively, 4 CDs on Teldec 995495), the Emerson Quartet (3 CDs, DG 431797), the Melos Quartet (3 CDs, DG 415870), the Hagen Quartet (3 CDs, DG 471024 or 7 CDs, DG 000649302), the Quatuor Ysaÿe (3 CDs, Decca 473963), the Amadeus Quartet (6 CDs, DG 001408002), the Talich Quartet (7 CDs, La Dolce Vita 100), the Chilingirian Quartet (5 CDs, CRD 5005), the Franz Schubert Quartet (5 CDs, Nimbus NI1778) and the Guarneri Quartet newly reissued on RCA (6 CDs, 1918042). A few of these boxed sets are available at half the Foghorn price or less. On the other hand, the Takács Quartet on Hungaroton (HCD 12983-85) play only the 'Haydn' Quartets at a price that is more eye-watering still than Foghorn's, and for all its brilliance, the Quartetto Italiano boxed set (8 CDs, Philips 416419) will likely be out of most mortals' price range.
Financial differentials aside, all the readings above have their own many strong points, with perceived weaknesses often coming down to aesthetics. The ASQ - who last year celebrated their 30th anniversary - are hard to fault in any regard: their professionalism is immaculate, their ensemble experience huge and telling, their instrument mastery practically faultless. They exhibit a Classical elegance and textural clarity that Haydn would surely have approved of. For those not on a budget, this is a safe purchase that will repay the outlay with hours of repeated pleasure.
Sound quality is very good indeed, as it invariably is at the AAAL: intimate, yet spacious, with all four instruments beautifully defined. The accompanying booklet is excellent - notes by Eric Bromberger provide just the right amount of detail for everyman and expert alike, though in English only.
Rather wantonly, each CD ends with a literal foghorn. These are thankfully on separate tracks!
-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International
Homage - Mozart: The Haydn Quartets / Alexander String Quartet
$37.99
CD
Foghorn Classics
Jan 01, 2004
FCL1985
The Sound of Weimar: Schubert-Liszt Transcriptions
Alpha
Available as
CD
$20.99
$15.99
Oct 30, 2015
Alpha Productions pursues it's collaboration with conductor Martin Haselböck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie in a disc devoted to Liszts transcriptions of works by Schubert. The Viennese conductor, a reputed Lisztian, sets great store by performance on period instruments (or faithful copies) as well as performance in venues full of history and of which the composer was fond. This volume, in the continuity of the Sound of Weimar series, initiated in 2011 by Martin Haselböck, was thus recorded in Raiding, Franz Liszts birthplace. Music lovers who have appreciated the fantastic piano transcriptions of orchestral works recorded by Yuri Martynov for Outhere, will henceforth be able to discover transcriptions for orchestra of Schubert piano works.
On Sale
The Sound of Weimar: Schubert-Liszt Transcriptions
$20.99
$15.99
CD
Alpha
Oct 30, 2015
ALPHA471
Mozart: Sonata for Two Pianos; Schubert: Fantaisie / Lortie, Mercier
Chandos
Available as
CD
$21.99
Mar 01, 1993
Recorded in: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk 19-21 October 1992 Producer(s) Tim Handley Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan
Mozart: Sonata for Two Pianos; Schubert: Fantaisie / Lortie, Mercier
$21.99
CD
Chandos
Mar 01, 1993
CHAN 9162
Schubert: Piano Trios D 929 & D 897 / Stuttgart Piano Trio
Naxos
Available as
CD
$19.99
May 15, 1989
SCHUBERT: Piano Trios in E-Flat Major, D. 929 and D. 897
Schubert: Piano Trios D 929 & D 897 / Stuttgart Piano Trio
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On Sale
