Coffee Concert

As its three-concert Schubert residency draws to a close, the talented young Elias String Quartet has kept the best-known until last. Of all Schubert’s chamber works the string quartet he based on the song Death and the Maiden has an air of desperate energy and deep lyrical introspection. Lovers of Wagner will recognise a very familiar leitmotif in the Scherzo’s hammering rhythms, while Schubert-lovers will revel in the inimitable charm of the single movement of a remarkable quartet which he sadly never carried to conclusion.