PARTITIONS GRATUITES : VIOLONCELLE
- Cry, Cry, Cry

SKU: HL.49033270

ISBN 9790001136860. 9.25x12.0x0.3 inches.

The Jagdquartett (Hunt Quartet), which Jorg Widmann wrote as his third string quartet in 2003, following the Choralquartett, also begins with a visible gesture. After a short signal cry from the performers, the piece starts by quoting Robert Schumann's Papillons op. 2, and for its full duration retains this gesture, these starting sounds. The degrees of recognizability do change continuously, to be sure, in the furious, racing organism of the score. The contours change into forms on another level, yet now and then the begining material returns clearly to the fore, initiated anew by a cry from the performers, and is then digested or mutated as a rhythmic study into a field of harmonic experimentation. On rare occasions, there are moments of pause - as though the musicians were testing the atmosphere, as though they were sensing the weather, so as ultimately to continue playing the quartet across the fields an forests of notes. A hunt after joyful performance, a chase, the whip cracking, after the thing to be shot, the sound, its performer, perhaps the composer himself? - A last shout, morendo, dal niente... - The victim is not the audience, at any rate.When comparing the output of string quartets from the 18th century to thetime of Schumann, it appears to have dropped considerably. Schumann composed only three complete quartets, all of them in the so-called 'chamber music year' 1842. Jorg Widmann, who counts Robert Schumann among his greatest inspirations, finished a series of five string quartets in 2005, at the same age as Schumann. The quartets in the cycle form in themselves the characters of the movements of the classical quartet. Jagdquartett represents the fast middle movement, the scherzo. Widmann's work appears rough and wild in the style of Schumann's alter ego Florestan. His hunt begins in the tempo of 'allegro vivace assai' with the final theme of Schumann's Papillons which often appears or is cited in many of Schumann's compositions. Widmann eventually dismantles the thematic material of his fierce quartet, thus skeletonising his prey.

SKU: BA.BA11043

ISBN 9790006543229. 33.5 x 25.5 cm inches.

Manfred Trojahn on the origin and title of his impressive virtuoso solo work:
Admittedly I do not know if he had seagulls, but since Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, he will not have gone through life without at least the impression of the cry of seagulls. Nor do I know if seagulls played any part in his life in Rome. I myself was astonished when, one or two years ago in the Villa Massimo, I was, not exactly annoyed but disturbed by the strong rhythmical cry of seagulls. I was just about to write a bassoon solo when the seagulls started.
Then the idea came to me that precisely this sequence of notes could serve as the basis of the work. And the sequence for the bassoon solo is, in turn, the basis of the piece for violoncello - this is how titles are born... Of course the violoncello meanders with virtuosic ease from the seagull motif to the 'elf-like' skittering brought to music by Mendelssohn and used time and again in his compositions, finally becoming a cabaletta. Now, cabalettas are not very representative of Mendelssohn, but as I was composing I definitely wanted to put a cabaletta in this passage.
I am sure Mendelssohn and I will easily agree on this, especially since later justice is done to him in the rapid passages and, of course in the tonal cadenza at the very end, which is more indicative of his time than of mine ... isn't it?