String Quartet No. 3 (Nielsen)

Last updated

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 (Our Society) on 1 May 1899 with Anton Svendsen, Ludvig Holm, Frederik Marke and Ejler Jensen as performers.

Contents

Background

In 1897 and 1898, Nielsen was a busy man. Not only was he preparing to write an opera ( Saul og David ) but he spent the summers looking after his parents-in-law's farm near Kolding in Jutland. Nielsen had an unfortunate experience when he tried to deliver the third and fourth movements for fair copying. When he arrived at the copyist's, a horse was lying in distress in front of a cart. He gave his music roll to a boy and helped the horse up. But in just a couple of minutes the boy had disappeared with the roll. Nielsen had to write it all out once more. [1]

Reception

Georg Hoeberg, leader of the Hoeberg Quartet Georg Hoeberg.gif
Georg Høeberg, leader of the Høeberg Quartet

There appear to have been more than one private performances of the work but the third quartet was first performed in public at a concert on 4 October 1901 in the small hall of the Odd Fellows Mansion in Copenhagen. It was the first chamber music concert by the newly formed Høeberg Quartet, consisting of Georg Høeberg, Louis Witzansky, Anton Bloch and Ernst Høeberg. [1]

While the reviewers praised the musicians, they were not all complimentary about the music. In Nationaltidende , Gustav Hetsch commented that the first movement "appears to belong to the kind of music that is splendid to read on the lined music paper, but in the event it sounds frightful. The few moments where we grasped the musical point were drowned out by the other cacophonous babble." But he liked the Andante "which is quite elevated in its mood... There is a wide horizon, a wealth of stars in the firmament and lofty cypresses in this music, which is so modern that it reaches back for the broad lines and simple colours of the past." The other reviews were equally critical of the first movement. [1]

Other performances

The work was played many times in Carl Nielsen’s lifetime by several quartets including the Høeberg Quartet and the Breuning-Bache Quartet. Peder Møller and Emil Telmányi were among the first violinists. In 1925 it was performed at the first of three concerts in the ceremonial hall of the University on the occasion of the composer’s sixtieth birthday. The review in Politiken spoke of "the E flat major quartet and its indisputable mastery, his greatest triumph in this music genre, powerful and manly, profoundly poetic, gracefully pastoral, courageously ambitious." There were also positive reviews of performances in Germany in 1902. [1]

Music

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm Stenhammar</span> Swedish musician

Carl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammar was a Swedish composer, conductor and pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Reinecke</span> German composer, conductor and pianist (1824–1910)

Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke was a German composer, conductor, and pianist in the mid-Romantic era.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1 in D major Op. 11 was the first of his three completed string quartets that were published during his lifetime. An earlier attempt had been abandoned after the first movement was completed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quintet (Schubert)</span> String quintet composition by Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert's final chamber work, the String Quintet in C major is sometimes called the "Cello Quintet" because it is scored for a standard string quartet plus an extra cello instead of the extra viola which is more usual in conventional string quintets. It was composed in 1828 and completed just two months before the composer's death. The first public performance of the piece did not occur until 1850, and publication occurred three years later in 1853. Schubert's only full-fledged string quintet, it has been praised as "sublime" or "extraordinary" and as possessing "bottomless pathos," and is generally regarded as Schubert's finest chamber work as well as one of the greatest compositions in all chamber music.

<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.

The Divertimento in E major, K. 563, is a string trio, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1788, the year in which he completed his last three symphonies and his "Coronation" Piano Concerto. It is his last divertimento and different from his other divertimenti not only in its instrumentation but also in its compositorial ambition and scope.

Antonín Dvořák's String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77 (B. 49), was originally composed in early March 1875 and first performed on March 18, 1876 in Prague at the concert of the Umělecká beseda.

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

The String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, MWV R 20, was written by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn during the fall of 1825 and completed on October 15. Written for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, this work created a new chamber music genre. Conrad Wilson summarizes much of its reception ever since: "Its youthful verve, brilliance and perfection make it one of the miracles of nineteenth-century music." This was one of the first works of Mendelssohn to be very well received.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quintet (Bruckner)</span> Bruckners mature chamber work

Anton Bruckner's String Quintet in F major, WAB 112 was composed in 1878/79 in Vienna.

The Danish Quartet is a name which has been carried by four Danish quartets:

The String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, was one of three major chamber music works composed by Sir Edward Elgar in 1918. The others were the Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, and the Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84. Along with the Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 of 1919, these were to be his last major works prior to his death in 1934.

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. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Percy Hilder Miles</span> English musician (1878–1922)

Percy Hilder Miles was an English composer, violinist and academic. For most of his career he was Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music. Among his students at was the composer Rebecca Clarke, and among Miles' associates was Lionel Tertis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Quartet (Schumann)</span> Piano Quartet by Robert Schumann (1842)

The Piano Quartet in E major, Op. 47, was composed by Robert Schumann in 1842 for piano, violin, viola and cello. Written during a productive period in which he produced several large-scale chamber music works, it has been described as the "creative double" of his Piano Quintet, finished weeks earlier. Though dedicated to the Russian cellist Mathieu Wielhorsky, it was written with Schumann's wife Clara in mind, who would be the pianist at the premiere on 8 December 1844 in Leipzig.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet in D minor (Sibelius)</span> String quartet by Jean Sibelius (1909)

The String Quartet in D minor, Voces intimae, Op. 56, is a five-movement chamber piece for two violins, viola, and cello written in 1909 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It is the only major work for string quartet of his mature period.

<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 Lisbeth Ahlgren Jensen, "Quartet for Two Violins, Viola and Cello in E flat major" in "Chamber Music", Carl Nielsen Edition Archived 2010-04-09 at the Wayback Machine . Royal Danish Library. Retrieved 29 October 2010
  2. "Carl Nielsen: String Quartet No.3 in E flat Major, Op.14", Edition Silvertrust. Retrieved 29 October 2010.