Schubert’s life and his String Quintet

Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) led a life as turbulent as his String Quintet. Growing up in Vienna, Austria, he learned the violin from his father and the piano from his brother. Tragically, he lost his mother when he was 15 and lost half of his fourteen siblings. When he was 17, he fell in love with a young soprano as she sang several premieres of his early works. However, the laws of his time required every bridegroom to prove that he had sufficient income to sustain a family, preventing their marriage.

Struggling to find stable employment, Schubert composed while wandering between teaching music at his father’s school, lodging at friends’ places, and working as a private tutor in the Austrian countryside. During this period, he wrote music not necessarily for publication but for private performances with his family, close friends, and “amateurs”—the lovers of music. Even after contracting the deadly disease of syphilis at the age of 26, his musical maturity and renown continued to grow, culminating in the first public performance consisting entirely of his music. In the same year, he died in his brother’s modest Vienna apartment at the age of 31.

Two months before his death, Schubert wrote String Quintet in C major (1828), a piece of unprecedented scale in its genre, full of evocative melodies, colorful textures, and seamless changes of mood. His instrumentation defied convention. Instead of a traditional string quartet (two violins, one viola, and one cello), he added a second cello, enriching the bass line. The dynamic nature of this composition is evident right from the beginning. The first movement starts with a soft, bright chord that turns into a darker burst within two measures, from which a playful violin melody emerges as though asking a question. The cello answers the question with a modulated line, leading into a rush of the viola’s ascending melody and the rough textures of heightened accompaniment with staccato and triplets. This buildup of tension is smoothly resolved as the two cellos introduce a tender, fleeting duet. Such fluid transitions from light to dark and back to light characterize the rest of the work.

Although Schubert’s music stands towering on its own, one cannot help but imagine the state of the artist’s mind writing in the depth of illness. Schubert was an introvert with unassuming physical and social presence, yet his intense, flourishing soul erupted onto sheets of music. Even at death’s door, he must have pushed himself to work, pouring the last of his energy into transcendence.

Buckeye Quintet

About Buckeye Quintet

Formed in January 2020 over a pasta dinner among its founding members watching video recordings of chamber music, Buckeye Quintet is a small passionate group of non-music major students at the Ohio State University performing favorite music on campus.

Tal Yankevich is a fifth-year Engineering Physics student who has been playing the violin for 11 years. He has played in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and various other orchestral and chamber groups. His favorite orchestral memory was playing in Vienna’s Musikverein with COYO, but he has recently enjoyed the close connection of playing in a chamber group. Outside of violin, Tal loves rock climbing and Latin dancing.

Olivia Jackson is an Orthodontic Resident who has been playing the violin for over 20 years. She has played with several groups around Columbus including the New Albany Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. Olivia also arranges music and plays in a wedding quartet she started as a student in college. In addition to her passion for performing, Olivia teaches violin and piano to beginner students.

Sarah Lord is a master’s student in Chemical Engineering who has been playing the viola for 13 years. Alongside her passion for viola, she also enjoys playing the piano. While Sarah likes performing with orchestral groups and at local nursing homes, it's the collaboration and precision of chamber music that she has grown to love.

Matthew Hruska is a first-year environmental engineering student who has been playing the cello for 8 years. He played in the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, and is now in the Buckeye Philharmonic. Chamber music is his favorite, having performed with many small ensembles throughout high school. Matthew also has played the guitar for seven years, enjoying genres such as rock, jazz, and classical.

Sungmin Park is a fifth-year economics PhD student who has been playing the cello as a hobby for over 20 years as a solo player, chamber musician, and an orchestra player. While he enjoys working on solo pieces such as Bach’s cello suites or playing in large orchestras such as the Buckeye Philharmonic, his favorite is chamber music—pieces written for a small intimate group of players.