Schuppanzigh Quartet
The Schuppanzigh Quartet is a collection of several string quartet formations directed by Ignaz Schuppanzigh in Vienna between around 1794 and 1830 . They play an extremely important role in music history, especially through the first public chamber music concert cycles and the introduction and dissemination of Ludwig van Beethoven's string works .
history
Quartet music in the form of two violins , a viola and a cello was originally written by Joseph Haydn as a multi-movement entertainment piece ( divertimenti ). In Vienna it quickly developed into a popular chamber music genre in differentiated forms: for private or salon use by (aristocratic, bourgeois) " amateur ensembles" as well as for middle-class house music cultivated in the closest circle. This resulted in a broad string quartet culture with a great need for compositions.
In systematic discussion and further development (Haydn, Mozart ), the classical string quartet emerged from the simpler divertimenti. By the time Schuppanzigh took up the ensemble performance, this had largely lost its entertainment character. Composed for connoisseurs and for performances in a larger social setting, it soon mutated into one of the most demanding genres of chamber music. Coupled with this were increasing demands on the technical skills of the artist and the listening habits of the public.
Schuppanzigh played a central role in this process of professionalizing ensemble playing and its way from the music room and salon to the public concert hall. In different phases of his life he was the founder or first violinist of at least four string quartet ensembles, which went down in history as the Lichnowsky Quartet, Schuppanzigh Quartet I, Rasumowsky Quartet and Schuppanzigh Quartet II.
Lichnowsky Quartet
As early as 1794, at the age of eighteen, Schuppanzigh emerged as the first violinist of a permanent string quartet maintained by Prince Karl Lichnowsky . Its palace was one of the centers of the music-loving Viennese aristocracy and a meeting place for famous composers and virtuosos . Not only a music lover but also a good pianist, Prince Lichnowsky was on friendly terms with his teacher Mozart, among others.
The ensemble, sometimes referred to as the “boys' quartet” because of its young musicians, included Schuppanzigh, Louis Sina (student of Emanuel Förster ) as second violinist, Franz Weiß as violist and Nikolaus Kraft as cellist. He was often represented by his father Anton, who was a member of the Esterhazy band under Joseph Haydn's leadership (until it was dissolved in 1790). The position of second violinist also seems not infrequently to have been taken by other musicians.
The Lichnowsky Quartet gave weekly concerts (Friday mornings) in front of a select company, which sometimes also included Joseph Haydn and Emanuel Förster and often Ludwig van Beethoven. Haydn's, Förster's and Mozart's quartet works were part of the ensemble's repertoire , and the composers were also occasionally involved in rehearsals, giving important suggestions for interpretation. In addition to technical perfection, the musicians learned early on how to subordinate themselves to the ensemble in favor of a work intention communicated by the composer.
The collaboration with Beethoven, who came to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn in 1792, was even more intensive. Apparently he quickly became acquainted with Prince Lichnowsky, who became his generous sponsor and gave him accommodation until 1796. His quartet was also available to Beethoven to try out his first chamber music works and to perform them for the first time in private. This was especially true for the piano trios op. 1 (turn of the year 1793/94), the string quintet op. 4 (1795/96), the septet op. 20 (1799/1800) and probably the string quartets commissioned by Prince Lobkowitz from 1798 to 1800 op. 18 .
In 1799 the quartet events seem to have ended with Prince Lichnowsky, without further details being found in the relevant literature.
Schuppanzigh Quartet I
Probably since 1795, but certainly since 1798/99, Schuppanzigh was also busy with the implementation of concerts in the Augarten . In the winter of 1804/1805 he began to organize regular public chamber music concerts with his own ensemble. His partners were his student Joseph Mayseder, the violist Anton Schreiber and Anton Kraft, who had often played in the Lichnowsky Quartet as a substitute.
In terms of music history, these public string quartet concerts were a novelty. Eduard Hanslick described the initial situation in his “Geschichte des Concertwesens in Wien” as follows: “The virtuosos did not condescend themselves to playing a quartet (publicly), the amateurs did not dare to go public with it; finally, the public, accustomed to a more colorful, more effective concert genre, felt no longing for public chamber music for a long time. Yes, among the general public, the quartet music was in some disrepute as cold, dark and learned. "
By then, a comprehensive string quartet culture had developed in Vienna and quartet music was eager, but was only cultivated by professional musicians and “amateurs” in the context of aristocratic or bourgeois salons or house music . Only the Schuppanzigh Quartet now offered freely accessible “Quartet soirée cycles” that could be booked by subscription with advance payment . Of course, their listeners came mainly from the upper classes or were experts - this assumption seems justified because (from today's perspective) the concerts mostly took place on Thursdays between 12:00 and 14:00. The venue was initially a private home, later a hall in the Hotel Zum Römischen Kaiser .
The performance repertoire is only vaguely comprehensible; the focus seems to have been Haydn, Mozart and above all Beethoven, who was in close contact with Schuppanzigh and the quartet.
Contemporary reviews particularly emphasized the high level of ensemble play, which is pleasantly different from the self-staging dominance of virtuoso individual musicians. Furthermore, that Schuppanzigh "(succeeded) in his excellent quartet performance in penetrating the spirit of the composition (...) and highlighting the fiery, powerful, but also finer, zahrte, humorous, lovely, prancing characteristically".
These events soon grew in popularity and their reputation spread rapidly across Europe. As a result, in Prague (1808), Leipzig (1808), Königsberg (1810), Berlin (1813) and Paris (1814), permanent professional string quartet ensembles with a relatively fixed cast, which gave public concerts.
Rasumowsky Quartet
In 1808, Prince Rasumowsky won the Schuppanzigh Quartet for a fixed, lifelong salary for his house music. Historically for Hanslick a final act in the genesis of the orchestral system from the princely private band to the publicly performing professional ensemble: “The last link in this chain can be considered the famous 'Rasumowsky Quartet', which became so important for Beethoven and through Beethoven . "
In addition to Schuppanzigh as first violinist, the prince initially played the 2nd violin himself, but soon left this position to Louis Sina. Franz Weiß, who had already played the viola in the Lichnowsky Quartet, and Joseph Linke, who came from Silesia to Vienna as a cellist, were the other partners.
The ensemble's concerts in the Palais Rasumofsky had a more public character, and since Beethoven was also supported by the prince, it was more or less available to him. Beethoven had already composed the three string quartets op. 59 on Razumovsky's commission in 1806 , which were most likely premiered by this quartet. The same can be assumed for the string quartets op. 74 (1809) and op. 95 (1810).
The collaboration between Beethoven and the musicians of the Rasumowsky Quartet was characterized quite impressively by the composer Ignaz von Seyfried : “As is well known, Beethoven was in the princely house, so to speak, with a cock in the basket; Everything he composed was tried out hot from the pan and, according to his own statements, carried out precisely, exactly as he wanted it to be just as and absolutely not otherwise; with a zeal, with love, obedience and piety that could only come from such ardent admirers of his genius and only through the deepest penetration into the most secret intentions; By fully grasping the intellectual tendency, those quartetists achieved that universal fame in the performance of Beethoven's tone poems, over which there was only one voice in the entire art world. "
Contractually but not restricted, the ensemble continued to organize its public concert cycles with the same program focus and so "the Rasumowsky Quartet became of the greatest importance for the dissemination and understanding of Beethoven's chamber music".
When, after the fire in the Rasumowsky Palace at the end of 1814, the prerequisites for the princely quartet performances were lost, the musicians (1816) were dismissed from their duties by their patrons (if they continued to pay). In the summer of 1815, however, Schuppanzigh had begun - based on the Augarten Concerts - to hold morning entertainment in the Prater (every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m.) with a focus on chamber music.
intermezzo
After the dissolution of the Rasumowsky Quartet, Schuppanzigh undertook extensive trips to Germany, Poland and Russia, which, however, are only very poorly documented. It is assumed that he also took part in quartet performances at the court of Prince Galitzin in St. Petersburg and campaigned for Beethoven's string quartets there, but there is no evidence of this.
In Vienna itself, the young Joseph Böhm (1816) tried to continue the Schuppanzigh quartet cycles with his partners, but initially with little success. Another attempt (1821) to resume the quartet “conversations” in the Prater with Karl Holz , Franz Weiß and Joseph Linke was more hopeful, but this was not continued either.
Schuppanzigh Quartet II
Soon after Schuppanzigh's return to Vienna in the spring of 1823, he took over Böhm's fellow quartet to found a new ensemble and, from June 1823, again regularly participated in public soirée cycles. These took place on Sunday afternoons in the Musikvereinssaal. Initially little visited, they soon enjoyed increasing popularity.
The repertoire listed now concentrated even more on the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, whose string quartet oeuvre received a strong impetus with the return of Schuppanzigh. It was possibly also this who - while still in St. Petersburg - inspired Prince Nikolaus Galitzin (1822) to order three quartet compositions from Beethoven.
Schuppanzigh's resumption of the concert cycles also seems to have had a fruitful effect on Schubert, because he now began to compose his quartets instead of for his own domestic use as before, with a view to public presentation by professional musicians.
Almost all of Beethoven's late quartets that emerged were premiered by the Schuppanzigh Ensemble ( op. 127 , op. 132 , op. 130 , op. 131 ?), Which also applies to some of Schubert's works (D 803, D 804). Other composers (such as George Onslow or Louis Spohr ) were rarely found in the programs, insofar as they are documented at all.
The quality of the new quartet formation evidently represented a further improvement over the previous ones, which is why this period is seen as the high point of Schuppanzigh's ensemble maintenance.
The contemporary criticism also apparently saw it this way: “Foreign artists, connoisseurs and art lovers, who visited one or the other of these quartets, assured that they had never and nowhere heard anything so perfect in this kind of execution. Most of these productions could really be called perfect. There is no advance, no wanting to be heard, no isolation of the souls and voices that deface most of such achievements; all four artists know only one purpose and strive towards it with true, intense virtuosity, which is expressed in the subordination to the whole, with clear awareness and constant attention. In this way, these quartets become a true school of taste and presentation, and have been maintained for years with increasing approval and interest. "
In fact, music-loving and generally intellectual Vienna seems to have been drawn to these chamber music events - Franz Schubert and Franz Grillparzer, for example, were among the visitors to the concert series. This came to a definite end with Schuppanzig's early and sudden death as a result of a stroke in March 1830. A few weeks earlier, the long-time violist in his ensemble, Franz Weiß, had died.
meaning
The pioneering achievements of the Schuppanzigh Quartets in the development of chamber music cannot be overestimated. This includes first of all a professionalization of the ensemble playing at the highest level with new components of musical expression. This of course also includes the establishment of public concerts for chamber music with all its consequences for its production and reception. And of course the establishment of the classical quartet repertoire (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) in the program design and the introduction and dissemination of Beethoven's most important string quartets are part of this pioneering achievement. Last but not least, this ultimately led to the increasing importance of the string quartet genre.
Professionalization of ensemble playing
Already with the Lichnovsky Quartet, the formative focus on (entertainment) purpose-independent chamber music is just as clear as its perfection. This was connected with more intensive rehearsal work, but this received less attention than it is today. In addition to the technical training of the individual musicians, training in harmonious cooperation in the ensemble was also necessary. Schuppanzigh, who was not necessarily considered a violin virtuoso himself, has evidently succeeded time and again as first violinist in merging the partners of the respective line-ups into high-quality ensembles. In addition to his increasing experience as the first violinist, his close collaboration with composers (Haydn, Förster, but above all Beethoven) who wanted their works to be performed according to their intentions also contributed to this. The struggle for an understanding of the pieces and their “correct” interpretation evidently led to subordination to the “spirit of composition”, as found so meaningfully in some contemporary reviews as an achievement of the ensemble (see above).
First public chamber music concerts
From today's point of view, the first initiative step towards the public is no less significant because Schuppanzigh and some of his partners were able to continue their activities from 1808 onwards under financial security through the employment of Razumovsky. At that time, professional quartet playing was in the transition from patronage to making music financially (purely or partially) dependent on the market.
For the string quartet in general, the path from the salon (with more relaxed, entertaining music-making among like-minded people) to the public concert hall implied a new constellation of performers and audience with decisive impulses from and repercussions on the composers. Finally, Beethoven was able to consistently pursue the path laid out by Haydn and Mozart towards composition as a “purposeless, autonomous work of art”. Faced with a genre for connoisseurs and their high demands, he was finally free for groundbreaking musical and artistic discussions. Making the resulting products audible, however, was only conceivable through an ensemble play at the highest professional level.
The new performance framework now made it possible for another audience (a middle-class middle class) to attend chamber music concerts - in aristocratic or middle-class salons this was previously only available to invited guests. Aimed at a professional and elitist target audience, presented with professional performance practice in a modified presentation framework, this also entailed a further change in the reception attitude itself and in the reception of the works (including "concert review").
Development and consolidation of the classical repertoire
As far as the repertoire is concerned, the Schuppanzigh Quartets have given the three pillars of the program, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, their importance. At the same time this repertoire became almost irrevocable - only Schubert finally received comparable attention.
Introduction and dissemination of chamber music works by Beethoven and Schubert
The ensembles play a central role in the introduction (if not already the formation), interpretation and dissemination of the Beethoven quartets. Recognizing the musical significance of the late works, which were still widely rejected, Schuppanzigh and his partners were decades ahead of their contemporaries. Being able to partially convince the audience of the greatness of this new kind of music was part of their own success.
The long-standing collaboration with Beethoven and the examination of his works allowed Schuppanzigh and his respective ensemble members to play a special role in the connoisseurship. Critics sometimes accused the Primarius of “gradually taking his intimate relationship with Beethoven and his quartets as a formal privilege to understand and reproduce this master, and to assert it against others”.
If one looks at the interrelationship between Schuppanzigh and his quartets on the one hand and Beethoven on the other hand as a whole, it was just as fruitful for both partners as it was for the genre itself. The ensembles grew under Beethoven's direct or indirect influence and owe some of their quality and fame to him . On the other hand, it was of inestimable value for the composer to be able to deal directly with the instrumental realization possibilities of his own and other compositions and to be able to influence the interpretation. The references of the professional musicians and the rehearsals themselves have often enough led to revisions and reworking of his string works.
Last but not least, the level of ensemble play achieved in each case also shaped the possible complexity of new works, if they should be able to be performed adequately. This is true despite Beethoven's now famous statement: “Does he think that I think of his wretched violin when the spirit speaks to me?” With these ungracious words he is said to have rebuked Schuppanzigh when he complained about the technical difficulties in a string quartet.
Beethoven's late works were written when he was already completely deaf. An impulse for this was probably to be found in Schuppanzigh's return after a seven-year absence from Vienna, namely in the confidence that their (first) interpretation was in the best of hands.
The latter also applies to individual string works by Schubert, who also drew new impulses from Schuppanzigh's return and gave him some for the premiere. Schubert's “Rosamunde Quartet” (D 804) is dedicated to his “friend” Schuppanzigh, incidentally, the first and only of his string quartets that was publicly performed and published during his short life.
Change in musical expression
The musicians did not always succeed in mastering the technical difficulties and compositional peculiarities contained in Beethoven's new string works. “The anecdote has been handed down that the musicians of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, when they had the F major quartet in front of them for the first time, reacted with great irritation to Beethoven's 'new path': They simply considered it unthinkable that the piece was supposed to be the expected new quartet and assumed it was fun. "
But mastery and characteristics, once developed and trained in their performance and interpretation, were transferred to the works of other composers and thus set a change in standards and apparently also in musical expression in motion. Precision, ease, dexterity and confidence in the execution of difficult passages, correct accentuation and richness of nuances in the performance were central criteria of the positive music criticism. The "delicate" game soon became an anachronism, and Haydn and Mozart now also called for more strength and intensity in expression.
The fact that Schuppanzigh evidently developed a somewhat expressive style of interpretation in his later years did not meet with unanimous approval: "Schuppanzigh's lecture is described to us by competent contemporaries as energetic and ingenious, but not free from an intentional turmoil, which is often achieved by separating related phrases, highlighting unimportant notes, wanted to appear significant and original even through arbitrary treatment of the beat and thus perhaps became the source of a later mode of presentation, which can be briefly called the 'affected'. "
Increased importance for the genre
In addition to Beethoven's quartet creations, Schuppanzigh's success in interpretation ultimately led to the string quartet gaining in importance and even more the nimbus of the most demanding genre of instrumental music: “You can say that his earlier achievements made him very much about the culture of this noble genre of music contributed and in this way earned a lot of service to the musical Viennese world. Since that time the violin quartet has become much more general, respected and popular here. "
What remains an astonishing phenomenon is that the compositions dramatically increased in complexity at the very moment when their presentation to a broader public was intended.
Hanslick summed up what Schuppanzigh's sudden death in March 1830 meant for musical culture in Vienna: “Since Schuppanzigh's death, quartet music in Vienna was almost completely idle, until 1845 Leopold. Jansa and in 1849 Jos. Hellmesberger resumed their regular care. "
Members
Order: violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello
- Lichnowsky Quartet (approx. 1794–1799): Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776–1830), Ludwig (Louis) Sina (1778–1857) and others, Franz Weiß (1778–1830) and Nikolaus Kraft (1778–1853), often represented from his father Anton Kraft (1749–1820) or Nikolaus Zmeskall.
- Schuppanzigh Quartet I (1804–1808): Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776–1830), Joseph Mayseder (1789–1863) and others, Anton Schreiber (?), Anton Kraft (1749–1820).
- Rasumowsky Quartet (1808–1816): Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Prince Rasumowsky / Louis Sina (1778–1857), Franz Weiß (1778–1830), Joseph Linke (1783–1837).
- Schuppanzigh Quartet II (1823–1829): Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776–1830), Karl Holz (1798–1868), Franz Weiß (1778–1830), Joseph Linke (1783–1837).
literature
- Biographical lexicon of the Austrian Empire . 32nd volume. Vienna 1876, p. 215.
- U. Harten: Schuppanzigh Ignaz. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 11, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-7001-2803-7 , p. 373 f. (Direct links on p. 373 , p. 374 ).
- Eduard Hanslick: History of the concert being in Vienna. 2 vol., Braumüller, Vienna 1869/1870.
- Clemens Hellsberg: Ignaz Schuppanzigh (Vienna 1776-1830). Life and work . Univ. Diss. Vienna 1979.
- Sven Hiemke (Ed.): Beethoven manual . Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel (among others) 2009.
- Walter Dürr, Andreas Krause (ed.): Schubert manual . 2nd edition, Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel (among others) 2007.
- Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets. Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . Rombach, Freiburg i. Br. 2004.
- Klaus Martin Kopitz : The early Viennese performances of Beethoven's chamber music in contemporary documents (1797-1828) , in: Beethoven's chamber music. The manual , ed. by Friedrich Geiger and Martina Sichardt, Laaber 2014, pp. 165–211
Individual evidence
- ^ Eduard Hanslick: History of concerts in Vienna. Vol. 1, Braumüller, Vienna 1869, p. 202.
- ↑ Anonymous (Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried?) In: Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung Leipzig . Vol. 7, H. 33 (May 15, 1805), Col. 534f.
- ^ Eduard Hanslick: History of concerts in Vienna. Vol. 1, Braumüller, Vienna 1869, p. 38.
- ↑ Quoted from: Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets. Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . Rombach, Freiburg i. Br. 2004, p. 32.
- ↑ a b c Eduard Hanslick: History of the concert business in Vienna. Vol. 1. Braumüller, Vienna 1869, p. 204.
- ↑ General theater newspaper . Vienna, No. 50 (April 26, 1827), p. 203.
- ↑ Quoted from Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets. Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . Rombach, Freiburg i. Br. 2004, p. 33.
- ↑ Sven Hiemke (ed.): Beethoven manual . Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel 2009, p. 187.
- ↑ General theater newspaper . Vienna, No. 150 (December 16, 1823), p. 599.
- ^ Eduard Hanslick: History of concerts in Vienna. Vol. 1, Vienna: Braumüller, 1869, p. 207.