Par LEIVISKA HELVI. Finnish composer Helvi Leiviskä (1902-1982) created a broad-based output of orchestral works, solo songs and chamber music. Her style could be described as moderate modernism, deriving influences from multiple sources such as late Romanticism, Symbolism, Expressionism, Existentialism and Neo-Classicism. Leiviskä's output is characterised by philosophical and religious themes, images of nature and narrative structures. Many of her works focus on human existential angst and spiritual searching and growth. Helvi Leiviskä originally completed her Piano Quartet in A major op. 1 in 1926 but revised it a decade later, in 1935. Written for the traditional piano quartet lineup (violin, viola, cello and piano), the work is in three movements and has a duration of about 25 minutes. It features religious and ecstatic imagery such as may be found in French, German or Russian neo-Romantic styles. Leiviskä's Piano Quartet is considered one of the cornerstones of her chamber music output. Its early version was premiered in two parts at student recitals of the Helsinki Music Institute (the 1st movement in 1925 and the 2nd and 3rd movements in 1926). The revised version was performed in full by Timo Mikkilä (piano), Sulo Aro (violin), Ilmo Ranta (viola) and Pentti Rautawaara (cello) on Finnish radio in 1939. The work was also on the programme of Leiviskä's second composition concert in 1945, being performed on that occasion by Jussi Jalas (piano), Erik Cronvall (violin), Erik Karma (viola) and Yrjö Selin (cello). Two commercial recordings have been released (Finlandia Classics 2012 and Telos Music 2016). It is published for the first time 2022 with an extensive foreword by Susanna Välimäki. The product includes the full score (piano part) and a set of string parts. Duration: c. 25'. Have a look inside by clicking 'sample'. / Date parution : 2022-05-31/ Répertoire / Quatuor avec Piano

Lubo? Fi?er (1935?1999) was one of the most distinctive figures of Czech music in the 20th century and composed the Variations on an Unknown Theme in 1976. The ?unknown theme? was a prankish eight-bar theme from Fi?er?s student days. In the elation following the home-team win over Canada on 15 March 1959, he made a bet with his colleague Kalach to compose a concert piece for violin and orchestra with the working title ?Canada-Rondo?. The whimsical contest was abandoned, but Fi?er did not forget the theme and he later created variations on it for his new composition for the Talich Quartet. The Variations on an Unknown Theme have now been published for the first time ever. This edition is based on the autograph of the score which is housed in the Czech Museum of Music in Prague.

Par BARTOK BELA. Bartók?s Second String Quartet was composed ? with several long interruptions ? between 1915 and 1918, after he had spent several years almost solely devoted to collecting folk music. The melody and rhythms of the riotous middle movement ?Allegro, molto capriccioso? provide impressive testimony of how his research trips had taken him as far as North Africa. The first edition of this quartet, published in Vienna in 1920, contains a conspicuous number of errors that were only partially corrected in a later revision undertaken by Bartók. As late as the 1940s he noted changes in his personal copy of the score that have never previously appeared in print. These late changes by Bartók are taken into account in this definitive edition of the string quartets supervised by Bartók scholar László Somfai, with problematic passages in the sources carefully documented. It is the first-ever Urtext edition of this work. Sensible page turns and cue notes in the parts mean that this edition is ideal for exploring Bartók?s sound world in performance. / Date parution : 2023-05-06/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Allerheiligentag Iii. Par LINJAMA JYRKI. Jyrki Linjama's second string quartet (2018) is subtitled Allerheiligentag III. The material for the Allerheiligentag cycle is a Finnish folk chorale for All Saints' Day (no. 146 in the Finnish Hymn Book). The first work in the cycle is a string trio (2007), the second a piece for orchestra (2009), and the fourth and fifth are solo works for viola da gamba and violin.The composer tells: “The choice of topic and material for the string trio was originally prompted by the venue at which it was to be premiered: the old church on the island of Seili (Själö). The bleak history of the island's leper and mental hospital evoked images of suffering and death. I got so attached to the harsh and beautiful melody that it began to generate a whole cycle.” The string quartet is in three movements (slow-quick-slow) tensed in different ways by contrasts. The first movement has both swinging softness and cutting sharpness, the Scherzo the wildness of a dance of death and lyricism, and the finale the irrevocability of a funeral march and tender melodiousness./ Répertoire / String Quartet

Par SUK JOSEF. First scholarly-critical edition The single-movement String Quartet #2 by Josef Suk (1874-1935) was written at the height of his compositional powers. Completed in Krecovice in May 1911, this demanding work, with its complex harmonies and motivic structure, seemed avant-garde for its day: the Berlin premiere of November 1912 was accompanied by protests from the audience. Now Zdenek Nouza has edited the first scholarly-critical edition of this piece. The principal source is the first edition in full score, published by Simrock in Berlin. But Nouza has also consulted the printed parts (containing additions of great interest to performers) as well as the engraver's copy used for the printed score (with autograph corrections from the composer) and additional sources such as sketches. - First Urtext edition - Foreword (Cz/Ger/Eng) and Critical Commentary (Eng) by the editor/ Répertoire / Conducteur de Poche

3. Streichquartett. Par FELDMANN WALTER. Der « noyé » [der Ertränkte] ist eine Gruppe von Kompositionen, die alle von einem einzigen Stück abgeleitet sind, von meinem ersten Streichquartett. Das Original, « . . . à tournoyer » [1990], und seine drei heute noch gültigen Folgekompositionen sollen aber nicht zyklisch aufgeführt werden : sexe-tuor [für Oboe oder Piccolo und einen Nachhall], le sexe du noyé [für Oboe und Elektronik] und le second tour du noyé. Am Schluss der Arbeit, die sich ursprünglich von 1994 bis 1997 erstreckte, steht das im Jahr 2004 völlig neu überarbeitete dritte Streichquartett, das den Kreis zur Ausgangsformation wieder schliesst. Der « noyé » stellt die Entwicklung eines eigenen, von denTonhöhen abgeleiteten rhythmischen Systems dar, das später die Komposition meines Hauptwerks mitbedingen sollte : « monstrueuse vécut dans le cadre » la mémoire für Solo-Viola und grosses Ensemble in 6 Gruppen, nach einem Text von Anne-Marie Albiach. Die vier Instrumente sind ungewöhnlich angeordnet: An der Stelle des Primgeigers sitzt hier - wie bei den vorhergehenden Streichquartetten - der Bratschist, so dass die zwei tieferen Instrumente die zwei höheren umranden. Jedes Instrument ist in einem der sieben Teile solistisch behandelt, die Bratsche im ersten, die 1. Violine im dritten, die 2. Violine im fünften und das Cello im letzten Teil, so dass die Hauptstimmen in Drehbewegung von links nach rechts wandern [tournoyer : im Kreise drehen]. Die Einsätze, Dynamik und Spieltechniken der einzelnen Instrumente entsprechen genauestens denjenigen des 1. Quartetts, nur dass hier das ursprünglich extrem einfache Material sich zu grosser rhythmischer und [achtel-] tonlicher Komplexität weiterentwickelt hat./ Répertoire / 2 Violons, Alto et Violoncelle

Par STOLL DAVID. A quartet, inspired by philosophical texts, dating from 1999, and as recorded by Solid Strings on Riverrun Records./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par BARTOK BELA. Béla Bartók?s six string quartets, composed between 1908 and 1940, are 20th-century milestones of the genre. His First String Quartet is closely linked to his unhappy love for the violinist Stefi Geyer, to whom he sent the initial measures of its first movement in early 1908 with the remark: ?My song of death?. When he completed all three movements of the work a year later, he had, according to his friend and colleague Zoltán Kodály, written himself ?back into life?. In this First Quartet, Bartók combines late-Romantic sounds with elements of the folk music that had since 1905 been a source of increasing interest to him. This definitive edition, supervised by Bartók scholar László Somfai, is the first-ever Urtext edition of this work. It takes into account both manuscript and printed sources, as well as letters and notes by the composer in which he recorded matters such as modifications to tempo markings. The Henle edition thus offers a musical text edited to the highest scholarly standards, with fascinating information on the work?s compositional history and performance practice. Sensible page turns and cue notes help to make this edition a real ?must have?. / Date parution : 2023-05-06/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Score and Parts. Par CROCKETT DONALD. Commissioned by Caramoor Music Festival in New York and premiered July 14, 2017 by the Argus Quartet, this work is in no small part a response to this quartet's sense of adventure and expressive emotional range. Inspired by two end-of-civilization novels the composer was reading prior to composing the work, the quartet unfolds in a single movement, loosely based on plot lines in both novels. One of the novels includes a Traveling Symphony, an assortment of musicians and actors who travel the countryside for decades playing symphonies, jazz and orchestral arrangements of popular music alongside performances of Shakespeare plays, reminiscent of medieval troupes traveling the countryside in plague-ridden times. The work is written so that the quartet embodies the Traveling Symphony, not only playing music but also singing and 'stage whispering' fragments of King Lear and other text across the collection of nine scenes./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Arrangeur: Hartmut Schick. Par DVORAK ANTONIN. When Antonín Dvorák started composing his String Quartet No. 10 in late 1878, none of his quartets had yet been performed. However this new work, deliberately cast in the 'Slavonic” style, quickly achieved international renown and has remained among one of the most popular string quartets by Dvorák. The authoritative Dvorák scholar Hartmut Schick has consulted all accessible sources, most notably the printed score published by Simrock and the autograph. Now, after many decades, a definitive Urtext edition of this major work can be presented. In comparison to the old Supraphon edition of 1955, the new publication includes a detailed Critical Commentary (Eng) as well as edited early versions of the middle movements in the appendix. A detailed Foreword (Ger/Cz/Eng) by the editor is also contained./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

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

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)

Par BACEWICZ GRAZYNA. Grazyna Bacewicz realised at a very early age that her main purpose in life was to compose music. Already during the 1920s, as a student of Lódz Conservatoire, as part of her lessons in harmony and counterpoint, she made attempts at composing, in which she tried to resolve nagging technical problems and impart an artistically satisfying form to them. She grew up in an atmosphere of anti-romantic tumult and the emerging neoclassical style. She assimilated the main attributes of that current in a natural way: the need to forge logical formal constructs based on new harmonic principles, not determined by the major–minor system, and also a freedom in the shaping of textures, a fixed element of which was the combining of homophony with more or less strict polyphonic forms. One example of such a strategy is the String Quartet from her student years, signed with the date 1929–1930, which the composer did not include in her official catalogue of works. In the first movement (Allegro moderato), one can distinguish two principal subjects, served in the form of the incomplete exposition of a fugue. The chromaticised first subject, with its strongly highlighted head motif, appears in the cello, with an answer coming four bars later in the first violin. After a short bridge, the first violin intones the second subject, of a different character (dolce), and the answer appears a bar later and an octave lower in the viola. Both subjects can be heard also in the closing coda, and the space between them is filled by counterpoints based largely on ostinato figures of various sorts – a technique that Bacewicz would hone to perfection in her later work. The middle fughetta (Molto adagio), with a subject stated just once, and in only three parts (cello, first violin, viola), acts as an intermezzo. The third movement (Allegro molto moderato) is a double fugue with strongly contrasting subjects. The first subject, in the form of a chromaticised melodic continuum, exposed by the cello, is initially shown with the traditional arrangement retained (answered by the viola and second violin at a fifth, and by the first violin an octave above). The second subject (energico) is a structure shaped by the opening repetition of a motif of perfect fifths, then octaves combined with staccato-tremolo figurations. As the work unfolds, the two subjects appear simultaneously in original and inverted form, coming together in the closing Cadenza in a uniform idea crowned by strong (fff) chords repeated towards the end. - Malgorzata Gasiorowska/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

for String Quartet. Par ORFF CARL. Like the Quartettsatz of 1914 (ED 7816), Quartettsatz in c-Moll of 1921, premièred by the Henschel Quartet at the Orff Centre in Munich in 2007, testifies to Orff’s early struggles towards the classical-Romantic tradition. Originally left unfinished as a fragment in C sharp minor, the first version has now been reconstructed (in C minor) from a source that only survived as a copy with autograph corrections. It is interesting to see a new tonal language appearing quite suddenly (and notated without bar lines in the first version) in the coda./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes