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"If one loves music, one can never be totally unhappy." (Franz Schubert) In his short lifetime Franz Schubert created a considerable amount of works. He composed in almost all genre types: lieder works - over 600, operas, symphonies, masses, octets, chamber music, dance music: waltzes, ländler, gallops, écossaises... String quartets are part of his works for small instrumental ensembles and are among his most performed pieces. Schubert himself pays special attention to them. In a letter to his friend, the painter Leopold Kupelwiezer, he wrote that he intended to "pave" the path to the "big symphony", composing string quartets in "high style" and with "symphonic proportions". This is entirely true of his later quartets, including the quartet in D minor "Der Tod und das Mädchen" (1824). The title is derived from the poem of the same name written by Matthias Claudius, and this is the main theme in the second part of the work. The unfinished quartet in D minor "Quartettsatz" (1820) precedes the last three quartets and is a kind of introduction to the new expressive techniques characteristic of Schubert's work at the end of his life. The two quartets are performed in this release by the Valchev String Quartet - one of the most widely recognised Bulgarian chamber ensembles in the period 1973-1982. It had many concert performances in Bulgaria and abroad: Germany, Austria, Hungary, the former USSR, Poland, Belgium, France, Czech Republic and Slovakia, Switzerland, Greece, Syria, Spain and Cuba. The quartet specialised under prominent professors: Prof. Vilmos Tatray (Budapest), Prof. Frantz Samohil (Vienna) and Prof. Rudolf Nell (Munich). It's mastership of performing was highly appreciated at prestigious international competitions, where it ranked among the award winners.