String Quartet No. 2 (Berwald)
The String Quartet No. 2 in A minor is a chamber music work by the Swedish composer Franz Berwald . It was written in 1849, but it wasn't performed in Sweden until the early 20th century. The string quartet later gained some notoriety, along with the increasing appreciation of the composer.
Origin, structure and style
In the years before the string quartet was created, Berwald, whose idiosyncratic music could not really establish itself in his home country Sweden, had toured Europe with some success. Especially in Vienna and Salzburg, performances of some of his smaller orchestral and vocal works received many words of praise from the public and the press. Berwald felt encouraged to further develop his style, which was based on the Viennese Classic , influenced by Beethoven's late work and the music of Mendelssohn , and for this purpose he increasingly turned to chamber music in the late 1840s , possibly spurred on by Mendelssohn's last work, which was then controversial String Quartet No. 6 (1847).
Berwald had already presented a first string quartet in G minor in 1818. However, Berwald's early work was more of an academic finger exercise. The second string quartet in A minor, which he published together with the third in E flat major, on the other hand, testified to Berwald's will and ability to develop his own musical style, both formally and melodically. The sentences are as follows:
- Introduzione: Adagio. Allegro
- adagio
- Scherzo: Allegro Assai
- Finale: Allegro Molto
The work, which at first glance appears to be classically conceived, proves to be virtuoso already in the first movement, for example through the long, tenderly floating introduction and a transition between main and secondary movement, which is characterized by great autonomy in terms of motifs. The melodic and singing Adagio in B flat major is followed by a playful Scherzo, which, with its 6/8 time and the scurrying and dancing progression, is reminiscent of Mendelssohn's “Elfen Scherzi”. The finale plays with changes between major and minor, but remains stuck to the classical tonality.
Publication and reception
Berwald could not find a publisher for the two string quartets and a performance did not take place at first. It is assumed that the musician, who was seen as difficult in social interaction and offended in his pride, who was an outsider in the Swedish music scene, also made no significant effort to convince others of his work. It was not until long after his death that the musical historical significance of his compositions, including above all his original symphonic and chamber music works, slowly became known to a wider public. On October 15, 1902, the work was successfully performed for the first time in Stockholm (smaller performances are said to have been given previously in Austria) and published as an edition a year later. Today Berwald's string quartets are performed regularly in Sweden, and they have also achieved a certain level of recognition internationally through concerts and various CD recordings.
literature
- Friedhelm Krummacher : History of the String Quartet , Volume 2, Laaber-Verlag, Regensburg 2005
- Erling Lomnäs (Ed.): Franz Berwald - The documents of his life , Bärenreiter 1979
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friedhelm Krummacher: History of the String Quartet , Volume 2, Laaber-Verlag, Regensburg 2005, p. 229 ff
- ↑ Erling Lomnäs (Ed.): Franz Berwald - The documents of his life , Bärenreiter 1979, p. 705