Franz Schubert composed the song “Death and the Maiden” in 1817, and in 1824 used that melody in the theme-and-variations second movement of his String Quartet in d minor D. 810. The song's popularity in the second half of the 19th century was responsible for the string quartet becoming known by the title “Death and the Maiden.” Like all of Schubert's mature chamber music works, it captivates with its technical perfection and high intellectual demands. Very prominent here is Schubert's desire to motivically link the movements together. Oddly enough, the work was neither performed nor published during his lifetime; the incomplete autograph score and the posthumous first edition of 1831 have thus served as the sources for our edition.
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The volume opens with something unusual: opus 42 is a single work, short and surprisingly easy to play; Haydn described it as “something small and with only 3 pieces”. The Quartets op. 50, including the so-called Frog Quartet, are dedicated to the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm II, who was a talented cellist. Even though the “solo” at the beginning of opus 50,1 is meant as joke, there are some good passages for cellists.
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After the success of his Slavonic Dances in 1878, Dvorák received a request for a string quartet in “Slavonic style.” In this piece, each of the four movements is informed by melodies and rhythms in the style of Czech folk dances and songs. Besides the first editions of the score and parts, all surviving autograph sources were consulted for this Henle Urtext edition.
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The string quartet is generally considered as the chamber-music genre of the classical era: invented by Haydn, elaborated by Haydn and Mozart, and brought to its compositional peak by Beethoven. All later quartet composers had to measure themselves against the works of these three masters. This applies first and foremost to Mendelssohn, who has always been called a “classical romantic.” His Quartet in A minor op. 13 in particular is said to have strong Beethovian stylistic traits. It was composed in late summer and fall 1827, shortly after Beethoven's late quartets appeared in print, works that Mendelssohn was no doubt familiar with. The Quartet in E flat Major op. 12 was written two years later, during Mendelssohn's first tour of England. A textually identical score of the two quartets is published in Henle's Study Scores series (HN 9270).
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The second string quartet by Philip Glass is a lyrical, almost romantic piece with strong prominant melodies and deceptively simplistic arrangement that reflects his pioneering minimal compositions. The piece began life as a score for Mabou Mines, the New York theater company that counted him as “unofficial” composer for almost three decades, and the name comes from the Samuel Beckett play Company.
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Debussy's new string quartet received a very cool reception at its première in Paris in December 1893, performed by the famous Quatuor Ysaÿe. The critics were upset by its unusual harmonies and orchestral sounds, and the musicians who were later presented with it considered it “unplayable.” Nevertheless the work was able to establish itself in the years that followed and today belongs to the core chamber music repertoire. The work was published in 1894 as “1er Quatuor”; showing that the composer was at least toying with the idea of writing another such work at this time – yet he neever did fulfill this promise.
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The five string quartets in this volume are generally designated as Beethoven's “middle quartets”, even though stylistically they do not all build a closed unit. More than three years lie between the inception of the three quartets op. 59 (1806) and the quartet op. 74 (1809/10). In the quartets op. 59, Beethoven sprinkled several Russian folksong themes – an homage to Prince Razumovsky, who had commissioned the works. This is why the pieces are often called the “Russian Quartets”. The next quartet, op. 74 in E flat Major, was also given a nickname: thanks to extended pizzicato passages in the first movement, it is frequently called the “Harp Quartet.” The F minor Quartet op. 95, in turn, bears in the autograph title “Quartet serioso”. All five quartets are mature masterworks which demand high interpretative and technical mastery.
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The fifth string quartet by the innovative Philip Glass was originally commissioned by David and Evelyne Lennette for the Kronos Quartet, and was first performed on February 15, 1992.
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When Smetana completed his Quartet in E minor in dark and dismal colors in 1876, he had already been completely deaf for two years. Which musician is not familiar with the fateful passage in the fourth movement, in which Smetana symbolizes the beginning of his illness with a violin note in an extremely high position? The previous movements tell of happier times in his life; an extensive extract from a letter about this is cited in the preface to our edition. Smetana, who at the time received a ridiculously small fee from his publisher, could not forsee that this work would later be considered one of the most famous string quartets of all time.
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“Masterly and full of new ideas”: thus the Swedish ambassadorial secretary Silverstolpe when he first heard these pieces in 1797. Haydn's friend, the music historian Charles Burney, reported in 1799 that he had “never taken greater pleasure in instrumental music.” Our new edition of these six works, including the famous “Emperor Quartet,” follows the text of the complete edition prepared by the Haydn Institute in Cologne. Both the study edition (HN 9214) and the set of parts (HN 214) have highly informative notes on the source materials and alternative readings. Fold-out pages in the parts allow for optimum page turns.
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Elvis' classic song arranged for string quartet.
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The fifth string quartet by the innovative Philip Glass was originally commissioned by David and Evelyne Lennette for the Kronos Quartet, and was first performed on February 15, 1992.
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Paramount among the Kronos Quartets' “translator”-arranger-composers has been Osvaldo Golijov. This collection includes six Golijov arrangements of works originating from Argentina, Cuba, Hungary, Mexico, and Portugal.
CONTENTS: Paredes: Canção Verdes Anos, Seress: Gloomy Sunday, Troilo: Responso, Lara: Se Me Hizo Fácil, Briseño: El Sinaloense, and Margarita Lecuona: Tabú.
This publication has been released in conjunction with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Kronos Quartet.
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Contains: Op. 18, Nos. 1-6.
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Rhythmic drive and modal harmonies are just a part of the intrigue of this Beatles classic, known for its revolutionary inclusion of a string quartet with a pop-rock song. Larry Moore gives us a solid arrangement that features the unique blend of the classical and pop-rock style that is Eleanor Rigby's continuing legacy.
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Duration: ca. 11 minutes.
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Brahms had already composed over 20 string quartets (he confessed to a friend that he had burnt all of that “stuff”) before he finally presented his Opus 51 to the public. In the end only three surviving works managed to withstand his high self-criticism; numerous layers of corrections bear witness to his struggle with each detail. We are now publishing the two passionate dark Quartets op. 51 separately from the rather more lively Opus 67. The basis for this edition is the volume in the New Complete Edition of Brahms' works, published in 2004 by Henle, for which previously missing sources in a Swiss bequest were consulted for the first time.
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The quartets were dedicated to the violinist Johann Tost, who was the second principal violinist at the Esterházy court during the 1780s. His business sense led him to sell twelve quartets - opus 64 was probably amongst them – to a Parisian publisher. Whether Haydn approved of this is open to question - the dedication was, however, no longer present in the second imprint or the following ones. Our edition follows the Haydn Complete Edition and for the first time juxtaposes the quartet in E flat major and the two original trios.
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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 revisionundertaken by Bartók. As late as the 1940s he noted changes in his personal copy of the score that have never previously appeared inprint.
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 Bartóks sound world in performance.
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We have now come full circle – this edition concludes our Urtext series of the complete Beethoven string quartets. The ending of this highly expressive work, at whose centre is the famous “Cavatina,” was originally the “Grand Fugue.” Yet a contemporary critic felt that this was “unintelligible, like Chinese.” At the urging of the publisher Beethoven replaced it with a newly composed finale and published the “Grand Fugue” with a new opus number. Ever since, it has often been performed separately. In order to respect the desire of modern ensembles to be able to perform the Quartet op. 130 in Beethoven's original version, we have included the “Grand Fugue” in this edition.
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For connoisseurs of Beethoven's chamber music, G. Henle Publishers offer a special package: all of Beethoven's string quartets in paperback study editions as a seven-volume boxed set. Renowned editors such as Ernst Herttrich, Rainer Cadenbach and Emil Platen provide diligently edited Urtext editions. The specialist press is full of praise: “Overall, it has to be said that all the revisions of the present study editions of Beethoven's String Quartets meet the high standards of objective, competent textual criticism, and that the practising musician is thereby given a musical text whose textual, critical problems may lead to an intensive engagement with Beethoven's compositions.” These editions, based on the Beethoven Complete Edition, take into account the complex source situation of the quartets. Detailed accompanying texts round off this splendid edition.
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