String Quartet No. 2 (Nielsen)

Last updated

Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No. 2 in F minor or Quartet for Two Violins, Viola and Cello in F minor, Opus 5, was composed in 1890, partly in Denmark but mostly in Germany where the composer was travelling on a stipend. The second of Nielsen's four string quartets in the official series, it was first performed privately for Joseph Joachim on 18 November 1890 at the Hochschule für Ausübende Tonkunst in Berlin.

Contents

Background

Nielsen reported in an interview that he was inspired to write the first movement of his second quartet when the theme suddenly occurred to him on a crowded tram in Copenhagen. In July 1890, in a letter written at his childhood home at Nørre Lyndelse, on the island of Funen, to his teacher Orla Rosenhoff, he indicated that the first movement had been completed and was ready for fair copying. A diary entry on 29 September states that he had just completed the third movement in Dresden. But the second movement caused him considerable trouble and it was not until 5 November, when he was in Berlin, that he reported: "Today got further at last in the Andante (later Poco adagio) for the quartet on which I have long stood still." He told Rosenhoff in a letter dated 24 November: "I have rewritten the Andante three times." However, it was only on 28 November that he wrote: "Have finished the Andante in the quartet today. At last! What that piece has cost me!" He had already completed the fourth movement before he left Dresden on 13 November. [1]

Despite five rehearsals, Nielsen was still nervous about performing the quartet for the famous Joseph Joachim during the afternoon of 18 December. Immediately after the performance he wrote; "We had held five rehearsals and yet it still sounded very mediocre; it is extremely difficult to play well, since there are so many modulations, often enharmonic affairs that have to be played so cleanly that half the difficulty would have been enough. If you add to this the fear of playing for Joachim, you can imagine that it did not go all that well." Joachim did however offer encouragement, "praising (him) greatly for the parts he liked". Later he explained how much he admired the "imagination and talent" with which the music had been written. Although Joachim suggested that the composer should rework the places he considered best in his work, Nielsen understandably refused to do so and Joachim finally conceded: "Well, my dear Mr. Nielsen, perhaps I am just an old Philistine. Write as you wish, as long as that is how you feel it." [1]

Reception

The second quartet was first performed in public in Copenhagen on 8 April 1892 in the smaller hall at the Odd Fellows Mansion with Anton Svendsen, Holger Møller, Christian Petersen and Frits Bendix. The work was well received and the reviews were good. The often critical Charles Kjærulf wrote in Politiken: "It emerged as clearly as anything that this talent is already capable of a quite remarkable tour de force: so fertile and swelling that it truly warms one’s heart and makes the blood course faster." Berlinske Aftenavis was equally encouraging, believing the piece "went on to show that Mr. Carl Nielsen is a young composer from whom one seems justified in expecting something significant." The piece was performed once more at Nielsen's composer's evening on 28 April 1892 with even more enthusiastic reviews. [1]

During his lifetime, Nielsen's Quartet in F minor became one of his most frequently played works, not only in Denmark, but also, for example in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Leipzig, Manchester, Mexico and Buenos Aires. Nielsen dedicated the work to Anton Svendsen, leader of the Neruda Quartet, who played it on several occasions at the Kammermusikforeningen (Chamber Music Society). [1]

Music

Related Research Articles

Robert Wilfred Levick Simpson was an English composer, as well as a long-serving BBC producer and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String orchestra</span> Musical ensemble

A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first and second violin players, the viola, the cello, and usually, but not always, the double bass.

The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, by Johannes Brahms was completed during the summer of 1864 and published in 1865. It was dedicated to Her Royal Highness Princess Anna of Hesse. As with most piano quintets composed after Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet (1842), it is written for piano and string quartet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Octet (Schubert)</span>

The Octet in F major, D. 803 was composed by Franz Schubert in March 1824. It was commissioned by the renowned clarinetist Ferdinand Troyer and came from the same period as two of Schubert's other major chamber works, the 'Rosamunde' and 'Death and the Maiden' string quartets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernhard Romberg</span> German cellist and composer (1767–1841)

Bernhard Heinrich Romberg was a German cellist and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 19 (Mozart)</span> Introducing Mozarts Dissonance Quartet

The String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, nicknamed "Dissonance" on account of its unusual slow introduction, is perhaps the most famous of his quartets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyacinthe Jadin</span> French composer

Hyacinthe Jadin was a French composer who came from a musical family. His uncle Georges Jadin was a composer in Versailles and Paris, along with his father Jean Jadin, who had played bassoon for the French Royal Orchestra. He was one of five musical brothers, the best known of whom was Louis-Emmanuel Jadin.

The six String Quartets, Op. 76, by Joseph Haydn were composed in 1797 or 1798 and dedicated to the Hungarian count Joseph Georg von Erdődy (1754–1824). They form the last complete set of string quartets that Haydn composed. At the time of the commission, Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy II and was composing the oratorio The Creation as well as Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterházy's annual mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Ries</span> German violinist and composer

Franz Ries was a Romantic German violinist and composer, son of Hubert Ries. He studied at the Paris Conservatory. He also worked in the publishing business.

The String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13, was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1827. Written when he was 18 years old, it was, despite its official number, Mendelssohn's first mature string quartet. One of Mendelssohn's most passionate works, the A minor Quartet is one of the earliest and most significant examples of cyclic form in music.

An organ concerto is an orchestral piece of music in which a pipe organ soloist is accompanied by an an orchestra, although some works exist with the name "concerto" which are for organ alone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartets, Op. 20 (Haydn)</span> Six string quartets by Joseph Haydn

The six string quartets Op. 20 by Joseph Haydn are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet "the father of the string quartet". The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Quartet No. 1 (Brahms)</span>

The Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, was composed by Johannes Brahms between 1856 and 1861. It was premiered in 1861 in Hamburg, with Clara Schumann at the piano. It was also played in Vienna on 16 November 1862, with Brahms himself at the piano supported by members of the Hellmesberger Quartet. Like most piano quartets, it is scored for piano, violin, viola, and cello.

Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Opus 13, was first performed privately on 18 December 1889 in Copenhagen. It was the first of Nielsen's four string quartets in the official series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 4 (Nielsen)</span>

Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No. 4 in F major or Quartet for Two Violins, Viola and Cello in F major, Opus 44, was composed between February and July 1906. The last of Nielsen's four string quartets in the official series, its first public performance took place on 30 November 1907 in Copenhagen.

Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat major or Quartet for Two Violins, Viola and Cello in E-flat major, Opus 14, was composed in 1897 and 1898. The third of Nielsen's four string quartets in the official series, it was first performed privately in Vor Forening on 1 May 1899 with Anton Svendsen, Ludvig Holm, Frederik Marke and Ejler Jensen as performers.

Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a, a piece for string orchestra by Anton Arensky, started out as the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 35, for the unusual scoring of violin, viola, and 2 cellos. It was written in 1894, the year after the death of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in a tribute to that composer. It is based on the theme from the song "Legend", the fifth of Tchaikovsky's Sixteen Children's Songs, Op. 54.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartets, Op. 50 (Haydn)</span> String quartets by Joseph Haydn

The String Quartets, Op. 50, were composed by Joseph Haydn in 1787. The set of six quartets was dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia. For this reason the set is commonly known as the Prussian Quartets. Haydn sold the set to the Viennese firm Artaria and, without Artaria's knowledge, to the English publisher William Forster. Forster published it as Haydn's Opus 44. Haydn's autograph manuscripts for Nos. 3 to 6 of the set were discovered in Melbourne, Australia, in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Quartets (Beethoven)</span>

The Piano Quartets, WoO 36, by Ludwig van Beethoven are a set of three piano quartets, completed in 1785 when the composer was aged 14. They are scored for piano, violin, viola and cello. He composed a quartet in C major, another in E-flat major, and a third in D major. They were first published posthumously in 1828, however numbered in a different order: Piano Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Piano Quartet No. 2 in D major, and Piano Quartet No. 3 in C major.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Elly Bruunshuus Petersen, "Quartet for Two Violins, Viola and Cello in F minor, Opus 5" in "Chamber Music", Carl Nielsen Edition Archived 2010-04-09 at the Wayback Machine . Royal Danish Library. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  2. ↑ "Carl Nielsen: String Quartet No.2 in f minor, Op.5", Edition Silvertrust. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.