Page 184 - PDF Flip TR Program Demo

184
The Music at Tippet Rise
the fifth restoring the melodic clarity of the original theme. A sedate coda ends the movement in G major.
The sharp Scherzo leads to a fanciful Trio section, filled with chirping first violin, before the Scherzo repeats.
The concluding Presto follows the rhythms of the Italian tarantella, a feverish dance once thought to cure a certain kind of spider bite. The incessant pattern keeps disintegrat- ing before coalescing again in unisons. In the Prestissimo coda, the quartet scurries toward its decisive conclusion.
“Death and the Maiden” was first rehearsed in Vienna on January 29, 1826, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet, the same ensemble that premiered many of Beethoven’s middle and late quartets. They gave the piece a private premiere on February 1, and though Schubert’s reputation continued to grow even as his health declined, the quartet was not published until 1831, almost three years after his death.