CONCERT IN LONDON by the Maggiore Quartet:     (See An Equal Music, p. 59 & 85-90.) Each piece has a fugal movement.

"It is immensely frustrating — a wonderful performance, and not a scrap of newsprint to tell the world it happened." (An Equal Music, p. 91)

1. Haydn, String Quartet in A major, Op. 20 #6
     Allegro di molto e scherzando mp3
     Adagio: Cantabile mp3
     Menuetto: Allegretto mp3
     Fuga a 3 soggetti: Allegro mp3
"The Opus 20 set of quartets was written in 1772 as the composer was coming into his full powers, and is commonly held to be his breakthrough work in the genre he pioneered. In the music of the greats, contrapuntal complexity seems to fill an emotional need (such as emotional intensity in Beethoven, or exultant joy in Mozart). In Haydn, Opus 20, the fugues are reserved for the fourth movements, and create a sense of energy and power, adding emotional and intellectual weight to the finale, which in his previous quartets had been more lightweight." (John Sichel, program notes)

"I love every part of the Haydn... The headlong happiness of the allegro; the lovely adagio...the contrasting minuet and trio, each a mini-cosmos...and the melodious, ungrandiose, various fugue—everything delights me." (An Equal Music, p. 86)

2. Mozart, String Quartet in G major, K.387 ("The Spring"
     I.   Allegro vivace assai mp3
     IV. Molto allegro mp3
Composed in 1782 in Vienna, this is the first of the 6 quartets dedicated to Haydn, considered the "father" of the string quartet. As mentioned in An Equal Music, the first movement is surprisingly chromatic, and has a minuet as a second movement (instead of the usual third) with the slow movement third. The fugal theme of four whole notes in the finale points ahead to the finale of Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony of 1788, a movement which also begins with four whole notes that are used in a fugal fashion, in the coda,

"In the fugal — or, rather, fugue-ish — last movement, it's the non-fugal bits that really come alive, and...take flight." (An Equal Music, p. 87)

3. Beethoven, String Quartet #14 in c-sharp minor, Opus 131 mp3
     1. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo
     2. Allegro molto vivace
     3. Allegretto moderato — Adagio
     4. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile—Piu mosso—Andante moderato e
          lusinghiero – Adagio – Allegretto – Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice – Allegretto
     5. Presto   
     6. Adagio quasi un poco andante   
     7. Allegro  
Of the 16 quartets by Beethoven, this is one of the most beloved of the late quartets, the composer's favorite, and the last music Schubert wanted to hear before he died, saying, "After this, what is left for us to write?" The fourth movement is a set of variations, and the final movement quotes the fugue theme from the first movement, foreshadowing late 19th century cyclical works. "Beethoven seems to have designed Op. 131 to embrace a vast range of forms, textures and feeling, ranging from the unearthly elegy of the opening fugue to the street tunes and knockabout humour of the Presto, from the gliding, quizzical second movement to the truculence and lyrical pathos of the finale." (Richard Wignmore)

4. (encore) Bach, Contrapunctus 1 from the Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080
     string quartet: 4-voice fugue in 3 minutes (An Equal Music, pp. 61, 89, 111, 301ff, 343, 368, 380) mp3
     or on organ contrapunctus 1
     musical score
     Summary analysis of Art of Fugue including contrapunctus 1

"...we practise the four-minute encore for more than an hour. We sink into its strange, tangled, unearthly beauty. At times I cease to breathe. It is unlike anything we as a quartet have ever played before." (An Equal Music, p. 61)

CONCERT IN VIENNA by the Maggiore Quartet:
     (See An Equal Music, pp. 238ff.).

1. Schubert, Quartettsatz in c minor, D 703
      Allegro assai mp3
      (9 minutes)
Ushering in the set of three great string quartets Schubert wrote at the end of his life is an unfinished work, the Quartettsatz (quartet movement) in c minor, written in 1820. This powerful movement was originally intended to be the first movement of a full quartet, and there exists a sketch for the opening of a second movement as well. It is not known why Schubert never completed the work, but the movement he did write is a masterpiece fully worthy of being in the company of the later, last three quartets." (Mark Steinberg)

"...we are shimmering away like manic bees at the start of the Quartettsatz." (An Equal Music, p. 238)

2. Schubert, Piano Quintet in A major, D 667 "The Trout"
     Allegro vivace mp3
     Andante mp3
     Scherzo: Presto mp3
     Theme and Variations: Andantino mp3    (Compare with the song, "Die Forelle")
     Finale, Allegro giusto mp3
The "Trout" Quintet was written in 1819 when Schubert was 22 but was not published until after his death. Instead of piano with string quartet (2 violins, viola and cello), this piece is for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. It is also unusual in having five movements instead of the usual four.
(An Equal Music, pp. 191ff, p. 239-40)

" ...and from all five of us the first glorious chord of the Trout Quintet sounds out into the hall... And now this last movement which Billy says can only work through frenzy."

3. Schubert, String Quintet in C major, D 956
     I. Allegro ma non troppo mp3
     II. Adagio mp3
     III. Scherzo: Presto — Trio; Andante sostenuto mp3
     IV. Allegretto mp3 
The great C major quintet, Schubert's only string quintet and probably his greatest chamber work, is often described as "sublime," especially the slow second movement which is nothing short of magical. It is unusual in having two cellos instead of two violas, giving it a darker quality than if it had two violas. The piece was written in 1826, two months before Schubert's death and was not performed or published until the 1850s.

"The last glimmer of the day is extinguished with the slow, grave trio. Noble, brooding, sorrowful, it helps one bear the world, and all fear of what may come in the sunless night." (An Equal Music, pp. 242)

And sparkle dropping argentine; Such wooing as the ear receives
From zephyr caught in choric leaves
Of aspens when their chattering net
Is flush'd to white with shivers wet; And such the water-spirit's chime
On mountain heights in morning's prime,
Too freshly sweet to seem excess,
Too animate to need a stress;
But wider over many heads
The starry voice ascending spreads,
Awakening, as it waxes thin,
The best in us to him akin;
And every face to watch him rais'd,
Puts on the light of children prais'd,
So rich our human pleasure ripes
When sweetness on sincereness pipes,
Though nought be promis'd from the seas,
But only a soft-ruffling breeze
Sweep glittering on a still content,
Serenity in ravishment

For singing till his heaven fills,
'T is love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup,
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes:
The woods and brooks, the sheep and kine
He is, the hills, the human line,
The meadows green, the fallows brown,
The dreams of labor in the town;
He sings the sap, the quicken'd veins;
The wedding song of sun and rains
He is, the dance of children, thanks
Of sowers, shout of primrose-banks,
And eye of violets while they breathe;
All these the circling song will wreathe,
And you shall hear the herb and tree,
The better heart of men shall see,
Shall feel celestially, as long

As you crave nothing save the song.Was never voice of ours could say
Our inmost in the sweetest way,
Like yonder voice aloft, and link
All hearers in the song they drink: Our wisdom speaks from failing blood,
Our passion is too full in flood, We want the key of his wild note
Of truthful in a tuneful throat,
The song seraphically free
Of taint of personality,
So pure that it salutes the suns
The voice of one for millions,
In whom the millions rejoice
For giving their one spirit voice.

Yet men have we, whom we revere,
Now names, and men still housing here,
Whose lives, by many a battle-dint
Defaced, and grinding wheels on flint,
Yield substance, though they sing not, sweet
For song our highest heaven to greet:
Whom heavenly singing gives us new,
Enspheres them brilliant in our blue,
From firmest base to farthest leap,
Because their love of Earth is deep,
And they are warriors in accord
With life to serve and pass reward,
So touching purest and so heard
In the brain's reflex of yon bird;
Wherefore their soul in me, or mine,
Through self-forgetfulness divine,
In them, that song aloft maintains,
To fill the sky and thrill the plains
With showerings drawn from human stores,
As he to silence nearer soars,
Extends the world at wings and dome,
More spacious making more our home,
Till lost on his aërial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.