Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms never did either for that matter .
The string quartets Beethoven wrote as he was stone deaf and at deaths door have never been surpassed .
Schubert died at 31 and wrote over 1500 pieces and the best were done in his last 2 years when he was very sick.
His String Quintet in C is the Holy Grail for string players, I heard no less a musician than Arthur Rubinstein say, with my own ears, he thought it the greatest piece of music ever written .

