In a characteristically imaginative move, the Quatuor Ebène complements Schubert’s sublime Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos (Gautier Capuçon joins the ensemble) with a group of his songs – sensitively arranged by the quartet’s cellist, Raphaël Merlin, and sung by German baritone Matthias Goerne, one of the world’s great interpreters of lieder.

In 2014 Erato released Schubert’s glorious ‘Trout’ Quintet, recorded live at Paris’s Salle Pleyel by members of Quatuor Ebène with nonagerian pianist Menahem Pressler. The French quartet – with a new viola-player, 24-year-old Adrien Boisseau and a distinguished guest cellist, Gautier Capuçon – now turns to another Schubert quintet, his final chamber work and one of his sublime masterpieces: the Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos in C major D956, often known simply as the Schubert Quintet. Its slow movement in particular, in which time seems to stands still, is a favourite with music-lovers.

Disc 1
01 Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: I. Allegro ma non troppo  - Quatuor Ébène
02 Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: II. Adagio  - Quatuor Ébène
03 Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: III. Scherzo & Trio  - Quatuor Ébène
04 Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956: IV. Allegretto  - Quatuor Ébène
05 Schubert / Arr Merlin: Die Götter Griechenlands, D. 677  - Quatuor Ébène
06 Schubert / Arr Merlin: Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531  - Quatuor Ébène
07 Schubert / Arr Merlin: Der Jüngling und der Tod, D. 545  - Quatuor Ébène
08 Schubert / Arr Merlin: Atys, D. 585  - Quatuor Ébène
09 Schubert / Arr Merlin: Der liebliche Stern, D. 861  - Quatuor Ébène