String Quintet in C major, D. 956

Schubert's final chamber work, completed in the last weeks of his life in 1828 and not performed until 1850 — over 20 years after his death. Where Beethoven and Brahms scored their string quintets with two violas, Schubert chose two cellos, creating a dark, luminous texture that haunts the work from its very opening. The Adagio second movement is frequently cited as one of the most transcendent passages in all music: a long-limbed, world-renouncing melody over a pizzicato accompaniment, interrupted by a turbulent central section of extraordinary emotional violence. The work is technically demanding for all five players but especially so for the two cellists, who carry much of the harmonic and melodic weight.