String Quartet in G major Op.post.161 D 887 (Study Score)

Schubert String Quartet in G major Op.post.161 D 887 (Study Score)

Schubert wrote his final string quartet in June 1826 during a period of creative paralysis, as he himself had lamented a short time previously in letters to his friends.  He then wrote out the piece fluently, completely engrossed in those notions of form and sonority which had become the ideal for his late chamber music.  Given this new grandeur and breadth of expression, virtually devoid of earlier models in the genre, he abandoned hope of quickly finding an ensemble to perform the work or a publisher to issue it in print.  It was apparently rehearsed in March 1827 by the young violinist Josef Slawjk, who had quickly risen to fame in Vienna at that time and we know of Schubert’s unsuccessful attempts to have the work published by B. Schott’s Söhne in Mainz.  Thereafter the piece long remained in oblivion. Only at the instigation of the Hellmesberger Quartet did it finally reach performance – in November 1850 – and one year later it was published by A. Diabelli & Co.

- Urtext of the New Schubert Edition

- Parts (BA5616) and study score format 22.5 x 16.5cm (TP303) available for sale