The String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 was written in 1935–36 by Samuel Barber. Barber arranged the middle movement for string orchestra as his well-known Adagio for Strings in 1936. Barber continued to revise the piece, particularly the finale, until 1943.
Molto allegro e appassionato
Molto adagio [attacca]
Molto allegro (come prima)
Begun while living in Austria with his partner Gian Carlo Menotti after Barber's Prix de Rome, Barber intended that the quartet be premiered by the Curtis String Quartet, but did not finish the piece in time for their concert tour. On September 19, 1936, Barber wrote their cellist Orlando Cole: "I have just finished the slow movement of my quartet today—it is a knockout! Now for a Finale." Having completed a finale, the string quartet was premiered in its provisional form by the Pro Arte Quartet on December 14, 1936, at the Villa Aurelia in Rome. Afterward Barber withdrew the finale so as to rewrite it, which he did by April, 1937. He rewrote it again before it was published. The final form was premiered by the Budapest Quartet on May 28, 1943, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
The first movement is a fine example of twelve-tone study. Haunting melodies are interspersed with fragmented lines in all of the voice parts to create an almost schizophrenic range of emotions that seem to pile up upon one another. It's clear that the main focus of this movement is controlled sound play, which is different for most listeners who are accustomed to a more "Western" melodic or harmonic structure and focus.
Third movement
According to Crawford's analysis (requested by Edgard Varèse), and others', the third movement is a sound mass composition in which a single composite melody line consists of successive tones from the different instruments. This is accomplished through the equality of the instruments, indicated by their cramped register and the frequent vertical crossing of their parts, legato bowing (with dotted slurs indicating preferably inaudible bow changes), and the gradual crescendos and decrescendos which are staggered among the instruments, meaning that one instrument is at its loudest while another is at its quietest. Each voice climbs over the top of the others as they move to the movement's highest dynamics, register, and climax, at which point they "break apart" or split into a four octave range created from triple-stops on all instruments. A performance in line with this reading is that of the Composers Quartet 1973 recording (Nonesuch H-71280).
The String Quartet, Op. 3, by Alban Berg was composed in 1910. It was not published until 1920.
The two-movement quartet is among Berg's most original compositions. Reminiscent of Schoenberg's F# minor quartet, the sound owes more to Romanticism than to contemporary composers like Webern.
Along with the composer's Piano Sonata, it received its premiere on 24 April 1911 at the Vienna Musikverein.
Bruckner composed the String Quartet in C minor between 28 July and 7 August 1862 during his tuition by Otto Kitzler, as a preliminary to exercises in orchestration. The manuscript of the Quartet was found on pp.165–196 of the Kitzler-Studienbuch.
A week after completing the composition (15 August 1862), Kitzler tasked Bruckner with writing a Rondo in größerer Form. The 40-bars longer piece, which has the same key, metre and formal structure as the first Rondo, can, therefore, be regarded as an alternative to the first Rondo.
The Quartet was not issued during Bruckner's life, since it concerned a sample of capability during his study period at Kitzler. Bruckner did not bequeath a score of it as he did for the later Four Orchestral Pieces. The Kitzler-Studienbuch was wound up in the legacy of Bruckner's friend Josef Schalk in Munich, in which the Quartet was discovered in 1950 by the Koeckert Quartet. The Koeckert Quartet premiered the Quartet on 15 February 1951 in a Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor broadcast, and performed it on 8 March 1951 in a concert in Hamburg.
21, the first of the three "Prussian" quartets), Samuel Barber (the slow movement from his lone StringQuartet, later world-famous as the "Adagio for Strings") and the last quartet of Antonin Dvořák, No.
... What more could you ask for in a season of classical music? From grand dramas to delicate string quartets, this fall has a packed calendar of classical gems.Snider, Copland, Barber, & Simon.
...Piano and StringQuartet ... 21, the well-known “Adagio” movement from Samuel Barber’s lone String Quartet (best-known in its string orchestra version as “Adagio for Strings”), and the String Quartet No.
This will be followed by the StringQuartet, Opus 11, by Samual Barber, including the famous “Adagio” movement which became the orchestral “Adagio for Strings,” whose mix of sorrow, hope and beauty ...
Aiming directly for the heart was the beloved Molto Adagio from Samuel Barber’s StringQuartet in B minor, Op ... and Sanders performed with an intimacy usually reserved for long-term string quartets.
“So the best we could do is that a VYO string quartet will be the opening act on our final concert (Aug ... Before that plan came into the picture, festival strings were not going to play just the Barber Adagio, but the entire string quartet.
The Grand Island Independent
07 Mar 2024
The Grand Island Independent
07 Mar 2024