‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet

Schubert's string quartet in D minor, D810, begun in March 1824, finished or revised in January 1826, and first performed in Vienna, Austria, on 1 February 1826. It is so called because the second movement is a set of variations on the introduction and the second half of his song ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ (D531, 1817, text by M Claudius), which consists of Death's quiet and reassuring answer to the girl's agitated plea to be spared. The work is sometimes heard today in an arrangement for string orchestra by Mahler.