After Volumes IV and III of the series with Mozartâ??s complete string quartets appeared as Henle Urtext editions in early 2017 and 2019 respectively Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert now presents Volume II â?? in full score and individual parts. Included are the â??Early Viennese Quartetsâ? from 1773 K. 168â??173. Entries in the autograph manuscript by the composerâ??s father Leopold however suggest that the ordering of the six works into a unified series of quartets was his doing. In his preface Wolf-Dieter Seiffert shares brand-new findings on the actual chronology of the genesis of these quartets. Moreover he succeeds in correcting what in prior editions were occasionalinaccuracies in dynamics and articulation thereby producing a new assured musical text. With artistic input from the Armida Quartet Volume II of the String Quartets also sets the benchmark in the Mozart Edition! After Volumes IV and III of the series with Mozartâ??s complete string quartets appeared as Henle Urtext editions in early 2017 and 2019 respectively Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert now presents Volume II â?? in full score and individual parts. Included are the â??Early Viennese Quartetsâ? from 1773 K. 168â??173. Entries in the autograph manuscript by the composerâ??s father Leopold however suggest that the ordering of the six works into a unified series of quartets was his doing. In his preface Wolf-Dieter Seiffert shares brand-new findings on the actual chronology of the genesis of these quartets. Moreover he succeeds in correcting what in prior editions were occasionalinaccuracies in dynamics and articulation thereby producing a new assured musical text. With artistic input from the Armida Quartet Volume II of the String Quartets also sets the benchmark in the Mozart Edition!

String Quartets op. 41-Although Schumann?s first attempts at composing for this supreme form of chamber music in 1838/39 were only fragments the three String Quartets Op.41 in a minor F major and A major were written inone go in June/July 1842. At the first private performances the audience was enthusiastic and it was Mendelssohn?s praise in particular that occasioned Schumann to dedicate the new works to him.The composerwrote to his publisher in an appropriately confident manner: ?Be assured I have spared no pains in creating something very decent indeed I sometimes think it is my best?. As is generally known today Schumann?sOpus 41 forms part of the core repertoire for quartet players.

PrefaceThe three movements of the quartet may be perceived as three different expressions of an unstable core: an inherent unrest leads to frequent changes of direction. The first movement is full of dramatic contrasts; it is followed by a second movement whose basic mood of meditative rest is challenged by occasional centrifugal utbursts while the third movement takes the inherent conflicts to a higher level contrasting material of introspective lyricism with excessively pathetic moods.The final ?way out? is a retrograde one (back) ?into the source?: through a constant accelerando-diminuendo the piece disappears into a vanishing point. The ?into thesource? of the title may be visualized as a reversed fountain-action: the broad fan-like spread of the first movement a more coherent-solid second movement and finally - in the third movement - a return-run ever more vehemently like a suction into the spring itself ?The musical motifs are varied; there are traffic-situations (which I heard!) with stomping and machine-like rhythms in different but simultaneous tempi and there are more abstract upwards and downwards half-tone-scales with changing accents creating glimpses of melodies.INTO THE SOURCE String Quartet No. 9 was composed on a double-commission from the Orion Quartet and the Vertavo Quartet. The premiere performances took places in Santa Fé in 2002 and in Oslo in 2003.Per Nørgård

Joseph Haydn's String Quartets Op.20 were composed in 1772 according to the date of the autographs. They are the last group in the series of string quartets with the opus numbers 9 17 20 composed a long time after the earlystring quartets in the years around 1770. Following these compositions several years were to pass before once again before Haydn wrote his next string quartets for a long while following completion of Op.20 does not necessarilyimply that he was having a 'crisis'; it might have had to do with the increasing load on Haydn occasioned by the regular performances at the Eszterhaza opera house leaving him with little time for other activities.

Study Score No. 21-Schoenberg composed his Fourth String Quartet Op. 37 on a commission from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The four movements of the quartet are based on a single twelve-note row although this is fairly free. The first movement is in an abstract sonata form. Transitions are generally built around a hesitant chromatically sighing theme that first appears in the first violin. Marked Comodo (leisurely) the second movement is an intermezzo in A-B-A form. The recitative-like main theme of the third movement first appears in unison after which individual instruments begin to break away with their own lines. Variation technique is prominent in the rondo finale marked Allegro -transformations of the main theme are so great that it is occasionally difficult to recognize its return. This is the Schirmer edition of the Score to this work.

Par BRYARS GAVIN. “Apart from the ten 5-minute string quartets that I wrote in 1992 as the original version of A Man in a Room, Gambling, there are 8 years between my second and third quartets. Another element which finds its way into the quartet comes from my work with groups from the world of early music, particularly from the experience of writing for a consort of viols …. In several places I ask for little or no vibrato from the strings, occasionally preferring open strings and natural harmonics to stopped notes.”/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes