String Quintet in C major, D. 956, Op. 163

Composed in September 1828, just two months before Schubert's death, the String Quintet in C major is widely considered his chamber masterpiece and one of the greatest works in all of chamber music. Scored for two violins, viola, and two cellos — an unusual texture that allows the second cello to anchor richly deep harmonies beneath a singing upper voice — its four movements inhabit worlds of extreme emotional range: a vast opening Allegro ma non troppo, an Adagio of transcendent beauty, a fierce Scherzo with a radiant Trio, and an exhilarating finale. It was not performed publicly until 1850, twenty-two years after Schubert's death.