![Benjamin Britten - Phantasy Quartet [With score] @DamonJHK](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ksdSIBBGtnI/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded November 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
-Composer: Edward Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976)
-Performers: Gernot Schmalfuß (oboe), Andreas Krecher (violin), Niklas Schwarz (viola), Armin Fromm (violoncello)
Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, op. 2, written in 1932
Britten's fondness for the oboe shows in his orchestral writing. Time and again, he used the high, clear sound of the oboe to pierce through the general sound, often using it as if a single voice against the world.
The first third of the twentieth century is marked by works by many British composers in the form of chamber music named "Fantasy." This is simply because of the periodic issuing by a wealthy patron of a commissioning prize for such works. Britten composed this Phantasy Quartet for the great British oboist Leon Goossens. It brought him national and international attention, being performed on the BBC in 1933 and at the annual International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in 1934, an extraordinary occurrence for the work of a composer who was still, at time of composition, a teenager.
The work also exhibits a formal procedure which Britten was to use numerous times throughout his career, that of "framing" a composition in one way or another. In this case, the work begins and ends with a legato oboe song over a string accompaniment consisting of one of Britten's typical disjunct march ideas. Britten builds the work in an arch form comprising, within the frame of the arch, a sonata form of development and recapitulation, a development section (in a very slow tempo) occupying the central position of the arch. It is an uncommonly inventive form, executed with considerable technical skill. Within all this technique, the music is uncommonly expressive.
Britten does not attempt to deny the oboe its natural tendency to predominate in this ensemble, so that work stands or falls on the artistry of the soloist on that instrument. In return, Britten gave the soloist an extraordinarily interesting and engaging piece of music.
-Composer: Edward Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976)
-Performers: Gernot Schmalfuß (oboe), Andreas Krecher (violin), Niklas Schwarz (viola), Armin Fromm (violoncello)
Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, op. 2, written in 1932
Britten's fondness for the oboe shows in his orchestral writing. Time and again, he used the high, clear sound of the oboe to pierce through the general sound, often using it as if a single voice against the world.
The first third of the twentieth century is marked by works by many British composers in the form of chamber music named "Fantasy." This is simply because of the periodic issuing by a wealthy patron of a commissioning prize for such works. Britten composed this Phantasy Quartet for the great British oboist Leon Goossens. It brought him national and international attention, being performed on the BBC in 1933 and at the annual International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in 1934, an extraordinary occurrence for the work of a composer who was still, at time of composition, a teenager.
The work also exhibits a formal procedure which Britten was to use numerous times throughout his career, that of "framing" a composition in one way or another. In this case, the work begins and ends with a legato oboe song over a string accompaniment consisting of one of Britten's typical disjunct march ideas. Britten builds the work in an arch form comprising, within the frame of the arch, a sonata form of development and recapitulation, a development section (in a very slow tempo) occupying the central position of the arch. It is an uncommonly inventive form, executed with considerable technical skill. Within all this technique, the music is uncommonly expressive.
Britten does not attempt to deny the oboe its natural tendency to predominate in this ensemble, so that work stands or falls on the artistry of the soloist on that instrument. In return, Britten gave the soloist an extraordinarily interesting and engaging piece of music.
![Benjamin Britten - Phantasy Quartet [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ksdSIBBGtnI/mqdefault.jpg "Benjamin Britten - Phantasy Quartet [With score]
-Composer: Edward Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976)
-Performers: Gernot Schmalfuß (oboe), Andreas Krecher (violin), Niklas Schwarz (viola), Armin Fromm (violoncello)
Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, op. 2, written in 1932
Brittens fondness for the oboe shows in his orchestral writing. Time and again, he used the high, clear sound of the oboe to pierce through the general sound, often using it as if a single voice against the world.
The first third of the twentieth century is marked by works by many British composers in the form of chamber music named Fantasy. This is simply because of the periodic issuing by a wealthy patron of a commissioning prize for such works. Britten composed this Phantasy Quartet for the great British oboist Leon Goossens. It brought him national and international attention, being performed on the BBC in 1933 and at the annual International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in 1934, an extraordinary occurrence for the work of a composer who was still, at time of composition, a teenager.
The work also exhibits a formal procedure which Britten was to use numerous times throughout his career, that of framing a composition in one way or another. In this case, the work begins and ends with a legato oboe song over a string accompaniment consisting of one of Brittens typical disjunct march ideas. Britten builds the work in an arch form comprising, within the frame of the arch, a sonata form of development and recapitulation, a development section (in a very slow tempo) occupying the central position of the arch. It is an uncommonly inventive form, executed with considerable technical skill. Within all this technique, the music is uncommonly expressive.
Britten does not attempt to deny the oboe its natural tendency to predominate in this ensemble, so that work stands or falls on the artistry of the soloist on that instrument. In return, Britten gave the soloist an extraordinarily interesting and engaging piece of music.")
![Rebecca Clarke - Viola Sonata [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kyhWWyDHIfM/mqdefault.jpg "Rebecca Clarke - Viola Sonata [With score]
-Composer: Rebecca Clarke (27 August 1886 – 13 October 1979)
-Performers: Antoine Tamestit (viola), Ying-Chien Lin (piano)
00:00 – I. Impetuoso
07:20 – II. Vivace
11:09 – III. Adagio
Rebecca Clarkes Sonata for Viola and Piano is first known of in 1919, when the composer was 33 years old. Clarke had moved to the United States in 1916, after being disowned by her father. She had been supporting herself with some success as a soloist.
The first reference to the Viola Sonata was upon its submission to a composition competition sponsored by Clarkes neighbor, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Out of 72 entries, Clarkes Sonata tied for first with a piece by the Swiss composer, Ernest Bloch. In the end Bloch was declared the winner, despite all the judges favoring Clarke—it was decided that declaring Clarke the winner would smack of favoritism on Coolidges part. It was also suspected by some that the name Rebecca Clarke was a pen-name of a male composer, as few imagined the possibility of a competent female writing such music. The piece had its première at the Berkshire Music Festival in 1919, and was well received. It, along with the Piano Trio of 1921 and the Rhapsody for cello and piano of 1923, represent the zenith of her compositional career, though afterwards Clarke wrote hardly any more music. The sonata was first published in 1921 by Chester Music.
Clarke gives us an incipit on the first page of the sonata, a quote from La Nuit de mai (1835) by the French poet Alfred de Musset:
Poète, prends ton luth; le vin de la jeunesse
Fermente cette nuit dans les veines de Dieu.
Poet, take up your lute; the wine of youth
this night is fermenting in the veins of God.
The sonata is cast in three movements. The first movement, marked Impetuoso, begins with a vibrant fanfare from the viola, before moving on into a melodic and harmonic language reminiscent of Achille-Claude Debussy and Ralph Vaughan Williams, two important influences on Clarkes music. Her language is at times very chromatic and shows the invention of Debussy in the use of modes and the whole-tone scale. The second movement, marked Vivace, makes use of many interesting special effects like harmonics and pizzicato. The final movement, Adagio, is both pensive and sensual in its language. However, Clarke works in a special surprise: a segue into a restatement of themes from the first movement. The sonata ends in a lush and brilliant pyrotechnical display, showing off the full range of the viola, as well as the piano (whose part is of equal difficulty.) Because of the many different obstacles the piece presents, as well as its highly idiomatic writing, it is becoming more and more a staple of the violists repertoire.
[Wikipedia.org]")
![Francis Poulenc - Sonata for two Pianos [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kzmlskID3pc/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Sonata for two Pianos [With score]
-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
-Performers: Pascal Rogé and Jean-Philippe Collard
Sonata for two Pianos FP 156, written in 1952-53
00:00 - I. Prologue. Extremement lent et calme
05:59 - II. Allegro molto. Très rythmé
11:06 - III. Andante lyrico. Lentement
17:23 - IV. Epilogue. Allegro giocoso
While extensive, Francis Poulencs catalogue of music for the piano consists largely of miniatures and character pieces, both singly and in sets. Poulencs Sonata for Piano Duo is one of the composers most ambitious and substantial works for the instrument; as such, it has emerged as one of the standards of the two-piano repertoire.
Though Poulenc had written a Sonata for Piano Duet (that is, for two players at one instrument) in 1918, it wasnt until late in his career that he began to produce works for two pianos. He dedicated the Sonata for Piano Duo, completed in 1953, to the piano duo of Gold and Fizdale, who had long championed the composers Concerto for Two Pianos (1932). While the Sonata is a serious and demanding work for audiences and performers alike, Poulencs essential qualities as a composer are evident throughout; at no time does his musical language lapse into arcana.
The contrast between bustling movement and extraordinary calm is one of the hallmarks of the Sonata. The work contains a number of allusions to church bells not the clangorous peals of Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition, but evocations of a gentler sort, more like the suggestion of a village church. The first movement, marked Prologue, is assertive and passionate, almost Schumannesque. The central section provides a moment of quiet contrast, while a tolling effect in the coda brings the movement to its end. The Allegro Molto is a scherzo characterized by jaunty, agitated themes. The Trio starts dramatically, ultimately receding into ethereal quiet. The Andante Lyrico opens with a chorale that summons forth the sound of a carillon; this simple beginning builds with an ever-increasing weight. The sprightly, playful Epilogue rounds out the work with the kind of exuberant finish that is characteristic of Poulencs multimovement works. The mood darkens as the movement pushes forward to a tragic climax; the gravity is dissipated, however, with a spirited burst at the conclusion.
[allmusic.com]")
![Robert Schumann - Romanzen und Balladen I, op. 45 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l9i003cc53M/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - Romanzen und Balladen I, op. 45 [With score]
-Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856)
-Performers: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Bariton), Gerald Moore (Piano; I and II), Jörg Demus (Piano; III)
Romanzen und Balladen I, 3 Songs for Voice and Piano, op. 45, written in 1840
00:00 - I. Der Schatzgräber {The Treasure-Seeker}
03:15 - II. Frühlingsfahrt {A Spring Journey}
06:17 - III. Abends am Strand {Evening by the Sea}
Schumann wrote these three songs during 1840, one of his most prolific and happy periods. However, the first song, Abends am Strand (which is third in the collection), was written in April, to a Heine poem, and the second two were written in October to Eichendorff poems, but they are still somewhat unified by a theme, if not as tightly as a song cycle; each concerns a search, the first, an obsessive search for treasure, the second, the varying searches of two friends for accomplishments, the last, the search for other lands.
Only one of these searches is unambiguously successful. The first begins with ominous, heavy minor descending passages from the piano, depicting the frenzied digging and also the eventual rock fall. There is a moment of melodious contrast with the angels song, and an almost mockingly light touch as the rocks and debris crush the treasure hunter, and his search ends with his death.
In the second, the assured, almost strutting marching theme that opens the song and the happiness of one man, with his wife and children and home (written with such a warmth and tenderness the listener can imagine Schumann is reflecting his own seemingly assured future happiness with Clara), are a vivid contrast to the more adventuresome melodiousness of the one who went further afield in his searches, and was drawn by seductive sirens. Whether this is a sad contrast or not is up to the interpreters.
Though the piano paints a clear picture of the rising mists and rippling waters, Schumann also carefully preserved the ambiguity of the last poem, which makes it unclear whether the sailor is enjoying rest after his voyages or wishes to be upon the boat disappearing over the horizon. The music describing the strange lands is compelling, but so is the tranquility of the music depicting the night, without any overt cry of longing for those lands.
[allmusic.com]")
![Claude Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lc7h0BLCBQk/mqdefault.jpg "Claude Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande [With score]
-Composer: Claude-Achille Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)
-Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker
-Conductor: Claudio Abbado
-Soloists: Maria Ewing (Mélisande), Francois Le Roux (Pelléas), José van Dam (Golaud), Jean-Philippe Courtis (Arkel; Un Berger), Christa Ludwig (Geneviève), Patrizia Pace (Yniold), Rudolf Mazzola (Le Médecin)
-Choir: Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88, written in 1893-1902
Act I
00:00:08 - Scène 1 - Une forêt [A forest]
00:12:32 - Scène 2 - Un appartement dans le château [A room in the castle]
00:21:32 - Scène 3 - Devant le château [Before the castle]
Act II
00:28:09 - Scène 1 - Une fontaine dans le parc [A well in the park]
00:38:00 - Scène 2 - Un appartement dans le château [A room in the castle]
00:51:04 - Scène 3 - Devant une grotte [Before a cave]
Act III
00:55:51 - Scène 1 - Une des tours du château [One of the towers of the castle]
01:09:36 - Scène 2 - Les souterrains du château [The vaults of the castle]
01:13:26 - Scène 3 - Une terasse au sortir des souterrains [A terrace at the entrance of the vaults]
01:18:01 - Scène 4 - Devant le château [Before the castle]
Act IV
01:27:37 - Scène 1 - Un appartement dans le château [A room in the castle]
01:30:24 - Scène 2 - (The same)
01:46:23 - Scène 3 - Une fontaine dans le parc [A well in the park]
01:50:17 - Scène 4 - (The same)
Act V
02:03:35 - Une chambre dans le château [A room in the castle]
Claude Debussys sole completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande (he worked, to little avail, on several during his younger days), is based on the Maurice Maeterlinck play that also inspired works by both Schoenberg and Jean Sibelius. Debussy began the first sketches of the opera as early as 1889, though the work did not take its final form until shortly before its Paris premiere in 1902. It was the composers intention to produce a kind of opera in which the music served the subtleties of text far better (he felt) than the dominant opera style of his day (i.e., the work of Wagner and his immediate successors) did. Thus, while the techniques of Pelléas are frequently Wagnerian in origin, they serve so radically different a purpose as to render the resemblance barely recognizable.
Debussy exploits the utter simplicity of Maeterlincks allegorical plot and allows the music to assume a texture of thoroughgoing delicacy. It is this fragility, sustained with consummate skill throughout the five-act opera, that, more than any other single feature, draws the most powerful response from both audiences and musicians involved in productions of the work. Subtle musical suggestion is the key to Debussys magic in Pelléas. Wagners celebrated leitmotif techniques are modified to make them less of a visiting card technique, as Debussy himself once described the German composers method, and more of a way to draw vague musical shapes that represent characters psychological conditions. Maeterlincks pessimistic denial of free will finds expression in the uncertain, intentionally non-directional nature of much of Debussys music (many of the musical motifs themselves seem to have trouble deciding which direction to turn next, so to speak, and undergo a certain amount of internal repetition before finally shooting off in a new direction). Debussys setting of French texts was never less than superb, and in Pelléas he achieves wonders the instrumental/vocal balance is such that few listeners will ever be aware of just how dense the orchestration is, while the psychological nature of the play (and its lack of stage action) allows the relationship between music and text to unfold in a spacious way that affords each character plenty of time to explore the depths of his or her individual experience. Although it is safe to say that few twentieth century operas could feasibly exist in their present forms had Debussy not found time to complete Pelléas et Mélisande, the work has never achieved the public adulation bestowed upon many of its dependents. Perhaps it is the very qualities that make the work so uniquely powerful its emotional vagueness, the way its apparently simple plot and undramatic (in a Wagnerian sense) music disguise a wealth of textual and musical complexities that are to blame for its general neglect. In many ways, however, Pelléas is a profoundly intimate work, and one wonders whether it is not better kept so.
[allmusic.com]")
![Dmitri Shostakovich - Viola Sonata [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lycYG6oJcvU/mqdefault.jpg "Dmitri Shostakovich - Viola Sonata [With score]
Composer: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September 1906 - 9 August 1975)
Performers: Yuri Bashmet (viola), Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
Year of recording: 1985
Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147, written in 1975
00:00 - I. Moderato
11:47 - II. Allegretto
18:48 - III. Adagio
This was Shostakovichs last work, completed about a month before his death. Because of his advanced and painful arthritis, as well as his unsteady hand and bad eyesight, the composer showed an increasing tendency to write sparsely scored orchestral compositions (Symphonies No. 14 and No. 15, for example) and many chamber pieces in his last years, finding their reduced scoring easier to manage. Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975, of heart failure, compounded by advanced cancer of the lungs. He was also aware that he was going blind. For all the suffering he was enduring in his last days, the composer did not invest his Sonata for viola with nearly the morbid and gloomy moods found in most of the late quartets. He himself spoke about the work, calling the first two movements merely a novella, and scherzo, respectively. He was a trifle more detailed about the finale, however, describing it as an adagio in memory of Beethoven. He also summed up the music in general as bright and clear. This last characterization of the work is misleading, as there is a feeling of resignation throughout, even if it is, to an extent, counterbalanced by a strong sense of serenity. In the end, the work seems to be an expression of the composer coming to terms with his ineluctable and unhappy fate.
The first movement, marked Moderato, is mournful, if serene, featuring sparse textures in the piano writing. The central panel (Allegretto) is actually playful in places, though one also finds a healthy dose of acid, typical of so many of the composers later chamber pieces. There is a Russian, slightly exotic flavor to the music here, as well. The finale is the longest and most substantive of the three movements. Its Adagio marking was a favorite of the composer at this time indeed, his Quartet No. 15 (1974) featured six consecutive Adagios. The mood in the finale is less gloomy than in that dark work, and the composer makes a brief reference to Beethovens Moonlight Sonata.
While much of the work is subdued and uncomplicated, it does offer considerable challenges to the performers. The sonata was premiered privately on September 26, 1975, and publicly on October 1. A typical performance of the Sonata for viola lasts between 35 and 40 minutes.
[allmusic.com]
Original Audio: https://youtu.be/haX77rYmw9g")
![Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quintet op. 29 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/m42FQho6PWo/mqdefault.jpg "Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quintet op. 29 [With score]
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827)
Performers: Ensemble Hausmusik (Monica Huggett, Pavlo Beznosiuk (Violins), Roger Chase, Simon Whistler (Violas), Richard Lester (Cello))
String Quintet in C major (Storm), Op. 29, written in 1801
00:03 - I. Allegro moderato
10:10 - II. Adagio molto espressivo
18:47 - III. Scherzo: Allegro
22:55 - IV. Presto
This quintet is generally regarded as a transitional composition in the output of Beethoven transitional in that it contains elements from his early style, as well as from his second period. It can even be heard as a piece that augurs stylistic traits from his final years. Thus, this work is quite an interesting one in the study of Beethovens compositional evolution, but more importantly it rates high in pure artistic merit, apart from any musicological significance.
What might strike some as curious about the work, considering its generally optimistic moods, is that it comes from the period when Beethoven was growing acutely aware of the onset of his deafness. What is of interest in this regard then, is that the first two movements seem to reflect a geniality and good-naturedness in their flowing expression, while the last two take on a sterner, more energetic and driving manner that seems to come from a different, more disquieting world. Perhaps the composer had begun to experience the anxiety and depression associated with his condition midway through the composition of the work. But the slight darkening of the mood is only one important aspect Beethoven, here foreshadowing his more mature style, also seems to achieve a higher level of art than he attained in the first two movements.
The work opens with an Allegro, whose fluency and calm demeanor never seem threatened by anything in the development section. There is more energy in the first subject, more repose in the second. If there seems a Mozartean air about the music, it never appears to cross over, or even approach, the line to pure imitation. Beethoven is masterful throughout the movement, providing a compelling development section and reprise.
The ensuing Adagio molto espressione features a lovely main theme and a charming middle-section, that again call the world of Mozart to mind. In this movement Beethovens contrapuntal writing is brilliant and helps to impart an atmosphere of great warmth. This and the first movement are the longest two in the work, each lasting nearly ten minutes.
While the mood of the Scherzo, marked Allegro, does not radically break from the more easy-going demeanor of the preceding two movements, it is more robust, more neurotically insistent. Its main theme, all of one measure in length, is repeated throughout the movement, the music turning obsessive and overwhelming. This Scherzo clearly looks toward the later ones, foreshadowing even that in the great Ninth Symphony.
If the third movement sounds advanced for its time, the finale surpasses it at least in its subtle and innovative use of counterpoint. The sometimes hesitant, sometimes start-and-stop character of this Presto clearly comes from a more mature Beethoven. The structure here is quite unusual, consisting of three themes and a short coda at the end of the exposition. There follows a development section, out of which emerges a fourth theme. The work closes with a brilliant coda. Without doubt this is music on a level of profundity rarely found in Beethovens scores up to that time.
This work was first published in Leipzig in 1802 and dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries. A typical performance of the Quintet lasts between thirty and thirty-three minutes.
[allmusic.com]")
![Béla Bartók - Violin Sonata No. 2 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mHYyTI0nTiM/mqdefault.jpg "Béla Bartók - Violin Sonata No. 2 [With score]
-Composer: Béla Viktor János Bartók (25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945)
-Performers: James Ehnes (Violin), Andrew Armstrong (Piano)
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, Sz. 76 (BB. 85) written in 1922
00:00 – I. Molto moderato
08:35 – II. Allegretto
Despite their conventionally accepted numbering, Béla Bartóks First and Second violin sonatas were actually the composers fourth and fifth works in that genre. Bartóks three earlier sonatas, composed during his student years, are in a Romantic, almost Brahmsian, vein, and show few signs of the bold strides the composer was to make more than two decades later. During the years preceding the First and Second sonatas, Bartók, an accomplished pianist, often performed with violinists. He dedicated these two sonatas to one such musician, Jelly dArányi, a Hungarian-born violinist living in London. Performances of these works with dArányi and others quickly spread Bartóks reputation throughout Europe and garnered praise from Stravinsky, Ravel, Szymanowski, Poulenc, and Milhaud. In this work, which was composed between July and November 1922, Bartók abandoned the traditional three-movement form of the Sonata No. 1, creating, instead, a more unified, two-movement composition. Nevertheless, the two works share some common features: their assimilation of Schoenbergs extreme chromaticism, and their finales, where the influence of dance music from Eastern European folk traditions comes to the fore. Of course, these movements are not actual folk music, but instead, a highly stylized treatment of folk-like material that prompted Bartók to warn a fellow Hungarian pianist: We must be careful to avoid any attempt to put on such works as my two Sonatas for violin...in places where the level of music appreciation is as low as it is in Hungarian country towns. Such works would merely rouse antagonism in an audience which has not been trained to listen. The structure of this Sonata, for which the composer himself expressed a preference, can be considered a metaphor for the development of folk song as a natural outgrowth of improvisation. The work opens with a long melody in the style of a hora lunga a free improvisation found in Romanian peasant music that uses a small group of motivic patterns. This theme returns twice: once in an agitated guise at the end of the first movement, and then once again at the end, the climax of the sonata. In this final appearance, played in the violins high register, the theme takes on a more stabilized shape in the context of the movements dance rhythm. Bartók scholar Lászlo Somfai concludes that this plan reveals a hidden program to the sonata: Bartók recreated the evolution of peasant music...in miniature, from the improvisatory ur-form (using his own themes) to the crystallized stanzaic formation of lyric songs.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Slåtter, op. 72 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nCEJ1JNAOGg/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Slåtter, op. 72 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Einar Steen-Nøkleberg
17 Slåtter (Norwegian Peasant Dances) for Piano, op. 72, written in 1902-03
00:00 - I. Giboens bridal march
02:48 - II. John Vestafes springdans
04:44 - III. Bridal march from Telemark
08:17 - IV. Halling from the hills (Tune from the Fairy Hill)
12:06 - V. Prillar from the churchplay Os (Tune for the Goat-horn)
13:19 - VI. Gangar
14:42 - VII. Røtnams-Knut. Halling
19:16 - VIII. Myllargutens wedding march
22:51 - IX. Nils Rekves halling
23:59 - X. Knut Luråsens Halling I
25:17 - XI. Knut Luråsens Halling II
28:03 - XII. Myllargutens Spring dance
29:09 - XIII. Havard Gibboens dream on the Oterholts bridge
30:55 - XIV. The goblins bridal procession at Vossevangen. Gangar
33:17 - XV. The bride of Skuldal. Gangar
36:08 - XVI. The girls from Kivledal. Spring dance
38:09 - XVII. The girls from Kivledal. Gangar
In April 1888, Edvard Grieg was contacted by Knut Dale, who requested that the composer aid him in an effort to notate some of the slåtter, or folk dance tunes, that he was known for performing on the hardanger-fiddle. The hardanger-fiddle was regarded as the national instrument of Norway at the time. These folk dance tunes, most of which had been passed along for many generations, were passed to Dale from another fiddler, Torgier Augundsson, who was also known as Myllarguten, or The Millers Boy. Augundsson often performed at Bulls National Theater in the town of Bergen in 1850. Grieg was not initially eager about the project due to the certain difficulty of transcribing this traditional style of folk music. Yet he decided to arrange for the preservation of these folkdance tunes because he feared that they would be forever lost in later times. The composer contacted the Norwegian violinist Johann Halvorsen in October of 1901 requesting that he spend time with Dale, in order to notate a number of the slåtter. Grieg would then transcribe the folk dance tunes for solo piano. By the end of the year, Halvorsen had completed the transcription of 17 of Dales best folk dance tunes. Grieg spent almost an entire year working on arranging Halvorsens work for piano, to produce his Norwegian Dances (1902).
Norwegian Dances was published in its two versions, Halvorsens for violin and his own for piano, in one volume at Griegs insistence. The composer also insisted that it be made clear that his transcription for piano was based on Halvorsens work. Both versions also include information on the extensive background of the folk dance tunes. Although the material for this work was conceived of originally by Grieg, it is nevertheless an important step in his musical development, as well as in the course of the early twentieth century. In fact, in 1906, the work made quite an impression on the young Impressionist musicians of Paris, who referred to it as the new Grieg.
The first of these folk dance tunes for piano is Havard Gibeons Bridal March, which is rhythmically strict throughout. The next of the tunes, Jon Vestafes Sprindans, can be described rhythmically as being bouncy. Jon Vestafe, according to legend, was suspected of murder and at his trial he asked for just one wish, to play one slått. He played so amazingly that he was immediately set free. The sixth slåtter, Myllargutens Gangar, is very complex rhythmically with confusing patterns of accenting and slurring. The eighth folk dance tune is Myllargutens Wedding March, a somber song which was written by Augundsson for a former love interest who left him to marry someone else. Arguably the finest piece of the cycle is the 11th slåtter, Knut Lurasens Halling II. It is the most stylistically varied of the entire set of folk dance tunes. The 13th folk dance tune contains the most dissonant passages of the composition, but also has very tender sections. The final slåtter transcription ends the work fittingly in a stately, nationalistic manner.
[allmusic.com]")
![Paul Hindemith - String Quartet No. 7 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nskb4ipWn1Y/mqdefault.jpg "Paul Hindemith - String Quartet No. 7 [With score]
-Composer: Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
-Performers: Amar Quartet [Anna Brunner (Violin), Igor Keller (Violin), Hannes Bärtschi (Viola), Peter Somodari (Cello)]
String Quartet No. 7 in E-flat Major, written in 1945
00:00 - I. Schnell
02:50 - II. Ruhig. Scherzando
05:20 - III. Langsam - Schnell - Langsam
11:22 - IV. Kanon, mäßig schnell - heiter")
![Anton Webern - Quartet (op. 22) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oF-dk5ieDDg/mqdefault.jpg "Anton Webern - Quartet (op. 22) [With score]
Composer: Anton Webern (3 December 1883 15 September 1945)
Performers: Charles Rosen (piano), Daniel Majeske (violin), Robert Marcellus (clarinet), Abraham Weinstein (saxophone)
Conductor: Pierre Boulez
Quartet for violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone and piano, op. 22, written between 1928-1930
00:00 - I. Sehr mäßig
03:30 - II. Sehr schwungvoll
Webern wrote his Quartet for violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone, and piano, Op. 22 (1928-1930) for the 60th birthday of architect Adolf Loos. As happened during the composition of his String Trio, Op. 20 (1926-1927), Webern discarded sketches for a projected third movement after deeming the first two movements a complete entity. Another connection the quartet shares with the String Trio is an opaque structure Stravinsky described as scatty.
The quartet was originally intended as a sort of reflection of nature, depicting landscapes and flora. After Webern had sketched themes according to this intent, the work gradually morphed into its completely different final form. The canons that had by this time begun to permeate Weberns music are more loosely realized in the quartet than in the composers previous works. In the first movement, for example, their most conspicuous feature is a two-note limping motive, a short-long rhythm that is later reversed; in the middle of the movement, the motive is sounded both in its original rhythmic values and in augmentation.
The second movement alludes to techniques Webern more fully developed in his Concerto, Op. 24 (1931-1934). Most prominent is the splintering of notes within a phrase among the various instruments in the sort of intricate pointillistic texture that became one of the most identifiable hallmarks of the composers style. When uniformly unfavorable reviews poured in after the quartets premiere in Vienna on April 13, 1931, Webern was unworried. Though the performance must have been superb the personnel included violinist Rudolf Kolisch and pianist Eduard Steuermann one critic wrote that the work displayed amazing similarity to certain basic human utterances of an indecent nature.
Original Audio with description: https://youtu.be/sXE8ha8-Xx4 and http://www.allmusic.com/composition/quartet-for-clarinet-saxophone-piano-violin-op-22-mc0002388432")
![Alban Berg - Lulu Suite [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ooM3YF2aQBg/mqdefault.jpg "Alban Berg - Lulu Suite [With score]
-Composer: Alban Berg (9 February 1885 - 24 December 1935)
-Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
-Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle
-Soprano: Arleen Auger
Lulu-Suite, 5 symphonic pieces from the opera for soprano & orchestra, written in 1934
00:00 - I. Rondo (Andante & hymn)
14:50 - II. Ostinato (Allegro)
18:39 - III. Lied der Lulu [Lulus song] (Comodo)
21:39 - IV. Variationen [Variations] (Moderato)
25:06 - V. Adagio (Sostenuto, lento, grave)
Alban Berg assembled his Lulu Suite for orchestra and soprano in 1934. This suite involves music from his opera Lulu, which was still incomplete when the composer died prematurely at the age of fifty in the following year. The operas short score was already finished, and the first two acts were completely orchestrated. It was from these first two movements that the music for the concert suite was drawn. It is in five movements and is slightly more than a half hour in duration. Earlier in his career, Berg had created a similar assemblage from his first opera, entitled Three Fragments from Wozzeck, but the Lulu Suite is better known and more frequently recorded. This is perhaps because the latter work is more diverse. The Wozzeck pieces concentrate exclusively on the music surrounding the protagonists wife Marie. In the Lulu Suite, listeners hear music concerning a broad range of characters. The opening setting concerns Alwa, one of Lulus many lovers. His father is Doctor Schoen, to whom the main character delivers her Lied der Lulu in Act II of the opera and in the third movement of the concert suite. In the fifth movement, the soprano also performs a brief excerpt from the role of Countess Geschwitz, another fatality to Lulus charms. The orchestral interludes include music set in Paris and the East Side of London, where Jack the Ripper murders Lulu. The concert suite also features different musical forms, including a rondo and a set of variations. There is a lot to hear in this suite, making it something more than a contracted showcase intended to get an audience to the actual opera. It is an outstanding work in its own right.
The text is by Wedekind, an elder peer of the composer who originally conceived of the opera as a play in which he also sometimes performed. In fact, when Berg was a young man, still a teen in 1903, he saw a play production of Lulu featuring Wedekind as Jack the Ripper. The playwrights wife recorded in her diary seeing the young and handsome composer in the audience. The play had an enormous effect on Berg, as his enthusiastic praises of the work in his letters demonstrate. Though he had a stately bearing matched with an outward, bourgeois respectability, the Austrian was no angel. Unlike Webern, his friend and fellow student of Schoenberg at the time, Berg did not shy away from the seamier side of life. He regarded sensuality as an enormous energy deserving of the same respect as other human traits. This may have been used as an excuse for his extramarital affairs, though it was not a part of his life that he shared with his more pious friends. Berg did not go to shocking excesses in order to live out his worldview, but he did attempt to woo married women and did similar sorts of unlovely things. To the benefit of music, his overt sensuality carried over into his art perfectly. His depictions of the darker side of human nature are often more mysterious and ambiguous than a one-dimensional evocation of evil. Though Lulu killed people and Jack the Ripper did the same, the opera unfolds with a musical setting that depicts a raw and unknowable element in the human psyche that civilization grasps blindly at in order to tame it. This setting is transferred from the opera to the Lulu Suite with uncanny perfection, revealing a talented genius that regarded some weaknesses and a misunderstood power.
[allmusic.com]")
