Although this fourth volume of the series is all music for strings by Schubert, it's still a highly unusual coupling. The Leipzig String Quartet follows its intensely dramatic, involving performance of Schubert's best-known String Quartet with a group of early dances, music that was probably intended to accompany actual dancing. It's disorienting to go from such stark tragedy to such blissful innocence. But the ensemble handles each aspect of Schubert's style with equal conviction, leaving us with two fine contrasting experiences. Incidentally, Death and the Maiden is the answer to a great classical music trivia question: What major 19th-century work has four movements all in minor keys? There can't be many others, if any. --Leslie Gerber
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