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Hugo Wolf
(1860-1903)

String Quartet in D minor
Italian Serenade

Fine arts Quartet
Hänssler Classic CD93.024

The String Quartet in D minor (1878-1884) is subtitled "Entbehren sollst du, sollst entbehren" – "Thou shalt forego, shalt do without," a quote from Goethe's Faust.

In spite of terrible emotional problems, Hugo Wolf managed to be a prolific and significant composer, best known for his many lieder, and his often-heard delightful Italian Serenade.

The far less popular String Quartet, however, is well-worth careful audition, especially if you are emotionally touched by the late Beethoven String Quartets. Wolf's strange rhythms and abrupt key-center shifts are more readily understood in the context of those Beethoven works.

The score I referred to while listening, from an out-of-print Dover Publications book (Seven String Quartets: 0-486-26891-8), gives the second and third movements in reverse order, but Wolf switched them later (and more appropriately). The Third Movement, Langsam, is the emotional center of this work, and can stand by itself as a passionate outpouring of deepest feelings.

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com

Parts available from Merton Music ]

Felix Draeseke
(1835-1913)

Volume I
String Quartet #1 in C minor, Op. 27
String Quartet #2 in E minor, Op. 36

Volume II
String Quartet #3 in C Sharp minor
Suite in F Sharp minor for 2 Violins Op. 86

Hölderlin String Quartet
AK Coberg DR0011 & DR0012

The complete quartets of Felix Draeseke have just been released. These string quartets are richly scored, and are excellent examples of Late German Romantic chamber music, with beautiful flowing melodies, highly satisfying emotional content, and engaging part-writing. The second quartet will most likely become the most popular, although all three are very enthusiastically recommended!

The Hölderlin String Quartet (Rebecca Martin, Christian Friedrich, violins; Andres Mehne, viola; Teemu Myöhänen, violoncello) was founded in 2005. They sound absolutely terrific, with a wide range of expression, vitality, and sensitive ensemble playing.

[ CDs may be purchased from the International Draeseke Society,
also a fine resource for more detailed information about Draeseke. ]

[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

[ Parts for the string quartets purchased from Merton Press ]

Georges Onslow
(1784-1853)

String Quartet in G minor, Op. 9/1
String Quartet in F minor, Op. 9/3
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 47

Mandelring Quartet
CPO 999060-2 70:25

The French composer Onslow wrote 37 string quartets. This CD combines two of his youthful quartets with one from his maturity. Some of the themes recall Schubert, harmonically Schumann appears, but neither of these great composers overshadows the music. Three of the quartet's members are siblings and Onslow is one of their specialities: the first violinist in particular negotiates some tricky writing with great skill.

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

Leó Weiner
(1885-1960)

String Quartet in E Flat Major, Op. 4 (1906)
String Quartet in F Sharp Major Op.13 (1921)
String Quartet in G Major (Pastorale, Fantasy & Fugue) Op. 26 (1934)

Auer String Quartet
Hungaroton HCD31687 74:19

Weiner's Second String Quartet is not Hungarian in the sense of borrowed folk-tunes, although Weiner did develop an interest in the extensive folk-research of Bartók, Kodály, and Lajtha. Instead, Weiner makes excellent use of folk rhythms, harmonic modes and spirit. He also has a wonderful melodic gift, and a totally idiomatic string writing sense.

For a short time before World War I, Weiner was more popular than his contemporaries, but this popularity faded and now he is hardly known. This CD by the Auer Quartet (Gábor Sipos & Zsuzanna Berentés, violins; György Gulyás Nagy, viola; Ákos Takás, cello) and a few others that have recently appeared, should help bring his neglected music the attention and acclaim that it deserves.

I would heartily recommend listening to this entire recording as a preparation for fuller appreciation of the somewhat more daunting six String Quartet masterpieces of Bartók, because Weiner's quartets, especially the Second, speak the same language but with more familiar accents.

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus – Musicnotes.com ]

(Maddelena) Laura Lombardini Sirmen:
  String Quartet Op. 3 #2 in B Flat Major
  String Quartet Op. 3 #3 in G minor
Emilie Mayer: String Quartet, Op. 14
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: String Quartet in E Flat Major

Erato Quartett Basel
CPO 999679-2 72:23

String quartets by three talented women composers from two different periods are presented on this fine sounding CD by the Erato Quartett Basel (Emilie Haudenschild & Attila Adamka, violins; Heinz Haudenschild, viola; Emeric Kostyak, violoncello). Laura Sirmen's (1745-1818) are the earliest, having elements of both late Baroque and early Classical period. Sirmen's graceful string quartets were published in the same year (1769) as Haydn's Op. 9 string quartets.

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847) was discouraged from publishing her compositions (under her own name) for most of her adult life, although she often worked in close partnership with her brother. This quartet was written in 1834. The second and fourth movements could not have been written by anyone other than a Mendelssohn! If you like the Felix Mendelssohn octet, you will certainly enjoy these lively movements!

Emilie Meyer (1812-1883; Groves: 1821-1883) was a multi-talented woman. She was not only a very prolific composer, but she was also a respected sculptor. Grove's Dictionary mentions among her compositions nine sonatas for violin and thirteen for cello, eleven piano trios, and seven string quartets. This quartet has the rich texture that inner-voice string players love: there is something interesting for every part. The second movement contains joyous and exciting (Mendelssohnian) motion. The third movement quotes a chorale tune and weaves variations around it, stylistically reminiscent of the finale of Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio #2, Op. 66. The Meyer string quartet closes with a pleasing finale and the entire quartet not only provides good listening but it also would be an excellent repertoire addition for string quartet players.

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Albert Roussel
(1869-1937)

Complete Chamber Music

Partial list of works:
String Quartet; String Trio Op. 58; Piano Trio Op. 2; Violin Sonatas Opp. 11 & 28; Serenade for Flute, String Trio & Harp Op. 30; Divertissement Op. 6; Trio for Flute, Viola & Cello, etc.

Performers: Jet Roeling, piano; Jean-Jacque Kantorow, violin; Herre-Jan Stegenga, cello; Hans Roerade, oboe; Paul Verhey, flute; Frank van den Brink, clarinet; Herman Jeurissen, horn; Jos de Lang, bassoon; Irene Maessen, soprano; Erika Waardenburg, harp; Jan Goudswaard, guitar; Quirijan van Regteren Altena, double bass; Janneke van der Meer, violin; Wim de Jong, violin; Henk Guittart, viola; Viola de Hoog, cello.

Brilliant Classics 8413 3CDs 67:43, 64:44, 66:31

Roussel's chamber music is filled with delightfully strange and interesting tonality that shifts all over the place but almost always returns "home" for the final chord. Roussel also uses insistent rhythmic accompaniments in many of his works. It's as if there is a motor humming away most of the time, and it gives an active, restless quality to the music.

The second CD contains the Serenade Op. 30 for flute, string trio and harp, and it would serve as an excellent introduction to the chamber music of Roussel. Also not to be missed is the short waltz: Aria #2 for oboe and piano. The third CD contains the charming, immediately accessible Trio for Flute, Viola and Cello. This is a chamber music set to treasure. Brilliant Classics has once again provided us with beautiful performances of fine music at budget prices.

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

Jean Cras
(1879-1932)

Quintet for Piano and Strings (1922)
String Quartet (1909)

Alain Jacquon, piano
Quartet Louvigny
Timpani 1C1066 74:33

Jean Cras was an officer in the French Navy, and an extremely talented musical autodidact. He was tutored for a short but intensive period by Henri Duparc, and he spoke fluently the language of Debussy, Ravel, and the Impressionists.

Cras' Quintet for piano and strings was planned as a musical shipboard adventure. The four movements are marked "Clear and Joyful, Calm and Peaceful, Alert and Decisive, Passionate and Proud" and there are program notes to go along with them. As you listen, you can hear the influence of his native Brittany's sea shanties, the hints of the foreign ports of call, the exotic scales of Arabic and Asian music, and in the last movement – about three and a half minutes into the movement) – you can hear an imitation of a Chinese stringed instrument (erhu). All are woven seamlessly into the fabric of the music.

Ordinarily I don't like having "programs" imposed upon my listening, but there is enough good music here for you to write your own adventure. The constant motion is IN the music; the swells of sound could really be the sea!

There is another composition of Cras' that will thrill those who hunger for more ocean voyages: His Ship's Log (Journal de bard) can be found on Timpani 2C2037 in an excellent 2CD set of Cras' orchestral music. However I found that with just a piano and four strings Cras could provide me with the emotions and colors of my own cruise on a luxury liner.

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Bernhard Molique
(1801-1869)

String Quartet #1, Op. 18 #1
String Quartet #2, Op. 18 #2

Mannheim String Quartet
cpo 777149-2 58:29

Molique was this German composer's preferred French version of his name. Ludwig van Beethoven looms large over these quartets published in 1834. The first, like Beethoven's, is in F Major, Op 18 #1 which is probably no coincidence. The second, in A minor, is somewhat darker and has some of the character of a Felix Mendelssohn quartet.

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Arthur Foote
(1853-1937)

Piano Quartet in C Major, Op. 23
Nocturne and Scherzo for Flute & String Quartet
String Quartet #1 in G minor, Op. 4

James Barbagallo, piano
Jeani Muhonen Foster, flute
Da Vinci Quartet
Naxos 8.559014 71:05

Foote, American born and American trained, still was firmly rooted in the European Romantic period. His cheerful and rich melodies pour out in this chamber music.

His most famous and understandably most popular work in its day is the haunting Nocturne and Scherzo for Flute and String Quartet. Foote's biographer, Nicolas E. Tawa, (Arthur Foote: A Musician in the Frame of Time and Place) quoted in the liner notes, said this piece "makes a statement that is benevolent and compassionate, rather than passionate". This is an excellent observation and also holds true especially for the second movement of the gorgeous Piano Quartet.

Foote follows in the tradition of Mendelssohn and Schumann in his chamber music writing, (although in the Piano Quartet there are moments that are also reminiscent of Dvořák's American Quartet). There is a modal theme in the last movement, described as a hymn-tune, used as contrast with the march-like first theme.

The String Quartet No. 1 is pure pleasure!

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[ Sheet Music for the music on this disc: Silvertrust Edition
  and other Sheet Music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]