One of my music teachers told me a beautiful joke about Igor Stravinsky and Franz Schubert. The story was that Stravinsky told friends that he would always fall asleep during a performance of Schubert’s music; but then he would awaken and find that he was in Heaven. I have always believed that Stravinsky’s moment of awakening took place at the beginning of the second movement of Schubert’s D. 956 string quintet in C major, even if I felt strongly that there was absolutely nothing soporific about the first movement. This work was composed just month’s before Schubert’s death, and one can let one’s Romantic imagination run wild and almost see one set of Angels preparing for his Ascension while another five are hard at work rehearsing this movement.

Read the full review by Stephen Smoliar on Examiner.com…