Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 2 - F# minor for soprano and string quartet op. 10 PH229 Arnold Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2 op. 10 with soprano (1907 /1908) is among the founding documents of New Music. Instrument: for soprano and string quartet Edition type: pocket score Composer: Schönberg Arnold 'This quartet adds a new element to Schoenberg's creative oeuvre: brevity. It was already indicated by the succinctness of the Chamber Symphony and is clearly expressed in the structure of the F sharp minor Quartet with four shorter movements. There is only a small step from the harmonic language of this work to a complete renunciation of tonality. The last movement - although, in the main, belonging to F sharp mayor - no longer carries a key signature. Chromatic alteration turns the fourth chords into harmonies never heard before, free from any tonal context.' (Anton Webern)

Jan Kubelik (1880-1940) is regarded as one of the most outstanding Czech Violin virtuosos. He studied Violin under Otakar Sevcik and composition under Josef Foerster Karel Knittl and Karel Stecker at the Prague Conservatory. After his studies he focused solely on his concert career.Kubelik made the Czech Violin tradition famous around the whole world and he was hailed as a new Paganini ( Paganini redivivus ). Nowadays his most played pieces are small compositions for Violin and Piano including this Minuet In An Old Style composed in 1930. They have been highly regarded for their perfect instrumental stylisation and the use ofpurely violinistic cantilena. 6 Violin concertos are set broadly rather like symphonies than concertos. Kubelik also composed Orchestral and Piano accompaniments for the works of Paganini (preserved in manuscripts) and cadenzas for numerous Violin concertos.