String Quartet No. 13 "Rosamunde"

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The string quartet No. 13 “Rosamunde” in A minor op. 29 D 804 is a chamber music work by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert . The quartet is nicknamed because of a melody from Schubert's earlier composition, which is extensively varied in the second movement, for the play of the same name by Helmina von Chézy . Schubert dedicated the work to his violinist friend Ignaz Schuppanzigh , who premiered it with his renowned Schuppanzigh Quartet on March 14, 1824 in Vienna. It is the composer's only string quartet that was performed publicly during his lifetime.

Emergence

The “Rosamunde” quartet belongs to the melancholy and musically complex, almost symphonic-looking late phase of Franz Schubert's chamber music output , which ended with his famous string quintet (1828). Schubert's 13th String Quartet was composed at the same time as his string quartet No. 14, which is still better known today, “Death and the Maiden” . Four years before his death, Schubert was already severely marked by physical and psychological ailments. The works speak of the confrontation with transience, death and redemption, but also the stylistic maturity and melodic mastery of Schubert, which puts his last string quartets in a row with those of his musical standard Ludwig van Beethoven .

Structure and style

The string quartet is classically composed in four movements. The sentence names are as follows:

  • Allegro ma non troppo
  • Andante
  • Menuetto - Allegretto - Trio
  • Allegro moderato

The first movement is characterized by the conflict of tender, cantable and melancholy motifs, stylistically by the interplay of singing song-like elements with dense, contrapuntal passages. A melancholy melody from Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade (D 118) appears as a self-quote . The second movement revolves around a theme taken up several times by Schubert from Entr'acte No. 3 of his Rosamunde music (D 797), which he varies with virtuosity, but always preserves the wistful, dreamy atmosphere. The same applies to the third set, in which a self- Ländler is colored by dark bass tones, thereby cumbersome works. There are also echoes of Schubert's composition The Gods of Greece (D 677, based on a poem by Friedrich Schiller ). In the finale, the work seems to rebel with dancing rhythms, but here too the basic mood remains.

reception

The performance of the work by Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who became famous primarily for his premieres of the late Beethoven quartets, and his ensemble was a great success for Schubert. Both the press and prominent critics expressed themselves benevolently to enthusiastically about the work, which was published a little later by the music publisher Sauer & Leidesdorf. The hoped-for breakthrough for Schubert's instrumental compositions, which were hardly noticed during his lifetime, did not materialize. Today the Rosamunde Quartet is part of the standard repertoire of many renowned ensembles and is often recorded and performed together with the Death and the Girls Quartet.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedhelm Krummacher : History of the String Quartet , Volume 2, Laaber-Verlag, Regensburg 2005, p. 58
  2. ^ Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 ( Memento from December 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), contribution by Stefan Siegert to BR-Klassik online from August 9, 2008
  3. ↑ Friedhelm Krummacher : History of the String Quartet , Volume 2, Laaber-Verlag, Regensburg 2005, p. 62