Adam Gorb's Bittersweet for Piano Quartet.Bittersweet written in 1999 for the Schubert Ensemble’s Chamber Music 2000 project is one of the hardest challenges I’ve ever had. I must have made at least five false starts before I felt I was beginning to get on the right track. What Iwanted was something musically sophisticated that has a certain amount of substance in a mere three minutes but at the same time is appealing to an audience relatively unfamiliar with new music. I also wanted to make the piece playable for gifted youngsters and amateurs. The musical language of Bittersweet is diatonic with ‘wrong notes’ and is based on small motives that makeup a melody in five-four time that I eventually couldn’t get out of my head. - Adam GorbCommissioned by Colin Senior for Meg.

Schubert only took ten days to write his String Quartet in G major one of his truly monumental chamber music works. With its almost symphonic dimensions this late quartet is reminiscent of his greatString Quintet in C major. As divulged in a letter Schubert actually wanted to 'pave the way for the large symphony' with this quartet and several other chamber music works that he composed around the same time. Writtenin 1826 the quartet was not performed in public during the composer’s lifetime; and it was only published long after his death. This Urtext edition with its accompanying study edition is therefore based on the survivingautograph.