Vanbrugh & Friends playing Schubert and Rimsky-Korsakov

Monumental, intimate, dreamy, earthy, triumphant, despairing… Schubert’s extraordinary string quintet is all of these things and more. It was the last completed work of the terminally ill 31-year-old composer and is recognized as one of the greatest works in Western music. Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1876 string sextet is, by contrast, a seldom played rarity, but it is full of charm and invention, exploiting the rich sonority of the six instruments to the full and featuring a lyrical and expressive slow movement.