LDV85

16 SCHUBERT ∙ ROSAMUNDE, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN After the third movement, a somewhat mephistophelean Scherzo, to which the Trio brings a welcome breath of fresh air, the concluding Presto produces the effect of a phantasmagorical cavalcade. It’s a macabre tarantella, whose key of D minor – the key of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and his Requiem – personifies Destiny, a fatal Destiny. This movement is one of the most difficult to interpret in formal terms. Our task here consists in integrating its various episodes into a single monument. The ‘Rosamunde’ Quartet is something else entirely. Beyond the sweetness and sensuality of this music, we are struck by its fundamental ambiguity, its interstices. The atmosphere this time is autumnal rather than wintry. The first movement exudes a vague melancholy. It is even rather depressive. The mood of anxiety is reinforced by the use of fermatas and rests, which are like suspensions in the discourse, whereas in ‘Death and the Maiden’ the music pursues its course inexorably. Ambivalence is present in the major/minor contrasts of which Schubert was so fond. The first movement’s development section is quite violent, with moments of extreme tension preceding the recapitulation.