String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

The summit of Beethoven's late quartets: seven movements played without pause, opening with a slow fugue Wagner called 'the most melancholy sentiment ever expressed in music'. No gaps for applause, no rest — the four players traverse it in one arc of about 40 minutes. Schubert, hearing it, asked: 'After this, what is left for us to write?' Listen for the four voices entering one by one in the opening fugue, and the almost transparent textures of the central variations.