String Quartet No.1

Goldschmidt’s four string quartets span the whole of his compositional career: the first was written in 1926 while he was still a student in Berlin; the fourth, completed in 1992 in London at the age of 89, was his last work in the chamber medium. All four contain some of his most personal and highly charged music. The first quartet was the last work Goldschmidt wrote under the tutelage of his teacher Franz Schreker. After it’s first performance in 1926 at the Berlin Hochschüle, Goldschmidt was congratulated by Arnold Schoenberg who must have admired the contrapuntal skill, command of structure and mastery of the quartet medium. This is a young composer’s music, full of vibrant, youthful energy and technical bravura, providing a thrilling showpiece for an experienced quartet.