String Quartet
SKU:
FG.55011-574-3
Composed by Kalevi Aho.
Score+parts. Fennica
Gehrman #55011-574-3.
Published by Fennica
Gehrman (FG.55011-574-3).
ISBN
9790550115743.
Kale
vi Aho (b.1949) was only
18 years old when he
completed his String
Quartet no. 1 in g minor
(1967). Nonetheless it
was already the second
one of its kind: the
earlier string quartet in
a minor got christened
String Quartet No. 0 and
banned from performing.
The g minor quartet was
heard the first time only
50 years after it was
born, when the Kamus
Quartet premiered it at
the Musica Kalevi Aho
Festival in Forssa on
June 28, 2019. In Aho's
home town, Forssa, it was
not possible to study
composition with a
teacher: My model in this
and the other works I
composed while I was at
school was all the mostly
tonal music I had
personally played on the
violin or heard on the
radio. The first
movement, Moderato,
begins in variation form,
until followed by a fugue
based on the variation
theme. The initially
lyrical second movement
has a quick, virtuosic
and light middle section.
The third movement is a
very quick scherzo that
becomes dramatic, and the
work ends with a
chorale-like finale. The
composer tells: When I
got to study composition
at the Sibelius Academy
in autumn 1968 and showed
the quartet to my
teacher, Einojuhani
Rautavaara, he said there
was no point my studying
tonal harmony and tonal
formal constructions any
longer; that I could do
the exams in them
straight away and start
the courses in modern
music resources there and
then..
[Read] String Quartet No. 1
