Meet Britain’s longest running string quartet. Founded in 1953, the Allegri Quartet went through 18 musicians before the current set, including six as primarius (first violin). During their career, they made an effort to play as many new pieces as possible, not to repeat themselves. That habit led to more than 60 world premieres, sometimes of pieces dedicated to the quartet.
Here they are presenting us with two lesser known string quartets by Schubert. Schubert wrote fifteen string quartets during his short life, many of them famous works. These are numbers 10 and 11. They were both published after the composer died. Number 10 was composed when the composer was just sixteen years old, and might have been just performed by the Schubert family. It is nicknamed the Haushaltung (household) quartet. Number 11 was composed three years later in 1816. Two youthful works then, played with considerable skill and well recorded. A joy to listen, and certainly recommended.