# The battle of the last quartets: Beethoven v Schubert



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Beethoven's final quartet is ethereal and beyond all human comprehension yet Schubert's enormous last quartet is so powerful and moving it also deserves recognition as one of the greatest pieces in the whole of music.

I am 501 Beethoven to Schubert 499.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Beethoven's hands down. His late quartets are very (x9) good, whereas Schubert's, especially No.15 only merits very X 7. Can we consider the Schubert Quintet as part of this comparison? It'd help Franz....
Bartok's merit x8.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

To my ears, the last Beethoven quartet looks ahead to Mahler (the third movement), and Schubert looks ahead to Bruckner, so I guess they're headed to the same place.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

It's interesting to compare Beethoven and Schubert in the 1820s, the decade in question here. On the old Amazon forum we held voting games to determine the top ten works for each decade. Beethoven swept the 1800s and got nine out of ten in the 1810s as well. But the 1820s were split evenly between the two composers. Here's how it stacked up:

1 - Schubert: String Quintet in C major D.956 (1828)
2 - Schubert: "Winterreise" D.911 (1827)
3 - Beethoven: Symphony #9 in D minor Op.125 "Choral" (1824)
4 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata #32 in C minor, Op.111 (1821-22)
5 - Schubert: String Quartet #15 in G major D.887 (1826)
6 - Beethoven: String Quartet #14 in C-sharp minor Op.131 (1826)
7 - Beethoven: String Quartet #15 in A minor Op.132 (1825)
8 - Schubert: Symphony #9 in C major D.944 "Great" (1826)
9 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata #30 in E major Op.109 (1820)
10 - Schubert: Fantasia in F minor for piano four hands D.940 (1828)

In another game, string quartets only, Beethoven's late quartets edged Schubert's works from the same period three to two (and together they were the top five of _all _quartets):

1 - Beethoven: #14 Op. 131 in C# minor
2 - Beethoven: #15 Op. 132 in A minor
3 - Schubert: #15 D. 887 in G
4 - Schubert: #14 in D minor "Death and the Maiden"
5 - Beethoven: #13 Op. 130 in B-flat (with Grosse Fuge)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

As much as I love the middle and late Beethoven quartets, I'd still pick Schubert.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Schubert's all day long.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Both composers hit a peak (or one of them) with their late quartets - even if Beethoven's had a more far-reaching effect on the genre as a whole whereas Schubert's were mostly an individually creative highpoint I for one ain't choosing.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Beethoven’s easily for me. The chord progressions are more interesting to me, but shows his mind was cracking, if he actually took himself seriously .


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