Schubert

I recall Bernard Levin writing about Schubert and saying that he never wrote a bad note and that he was the kindest and most considerate man. I also recall Bernard Shaw referring to his "chocolate box" music.
I have just heard Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor and cannot agree with Shaw because the music is so powerful but neither can I entirely agree with Levin because I feel that once the fierce introductory chords are played there follows a real let down of a theme, so banal compared with what has just gone.
It's a great introduction, used by Woody Allen in his best film "Crimes and Misdemeanours" at the moment when the woman who is the main character's lover is striding to her death.
Yes, the quartet has a title and it is "Death and the Maiden" - certainly apt but I wonder if Woody used it there because he felt it was most effective or because the title made it apt - to those in the know!
Even those not "in the know" do know that Schubert wrote an Unfinished Symphony, his 8th., the one with only two movements. Which reminds me of my once favourite advert on TV. Schubert is in the local pub enjoying a drink when in comes a young man who says "Herr Schubert, what about your Unfinished Symphony?" To which Schubert replies, holding his glass of beer aloft "Yes, but what about my unfinished Kronenberg!"
Great advert. Great symphony. Great Quartet - all except that bit that follows the introduction.