Although dogged by ill-health in the last years of his short life and a lack of the recognition due to his genius, Schubert’s musical output was vast. The fifteen string quartets are remarkable for their compositional mastery, melodic fluency and lyricism. The three early quartets featured on this recording, two of which were written when Schubert was still a schoolboy, while clearly influenced by those of Haydn and Mozart, are technically accomplished works with occasional hints of the emotional ambivalence characteristic of his later works.