contemporaries in contempt

From the album "No. 3" (2012)

BERG-String Quartet, Op. 3
Composed in 1909-1910.

Alban Berg (1885-1935) met Arnold Schoenberg in October 1904, in response to a newspaper want ad. Schoenberg, who had made news in 1902 with the premiere of his first large-scale work, Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) had decided to take students to help make ends meet. Within days he signed up the two young men who would help him write one of the central chapters in twentieth-century music. Both Berg and Anton Webern were at their teacher's side as he composed the first music that was called atonal (Schoenberg thought the term nonsensical and preferred the all-inclusive "pantonal").

Berg's first compositions written under Schoenberg show the powerful influence of his teacher, as well as the potent impact of the Romantic era. (Berg's relationship with Schoenberg was complicated; Berg's father had died when he was fifteen, and Schoenberg quickly became a surrogate father as well as a mentor and model.) As early as the Four Songs, begun in 1909 and published the following year as op. 2, Berg also seemed ready to abandon tonality. His very next work, the masterful String Quartet, op. 3, was his valediction; Berg was now a colleague, not a disciple.

This String Quartet stands at the crossroads of past and future. The vocabulary is still recognizably that of Wagner and Mahler, but Berg has stretched it beyond the limits of even those two pioneers. Although the last traces of tonality remain, Berg's music is rarely tied to the triad and he seems to be searching for a new harmonic language. The quartet's opening theme employs all twelve notes of the scale, though not in the systematic way of Schoenberg's serial system, still years in the future. The Quartet is colored throughout by passionate expression and explosive dramatic power. The spirit of the work, characterized by such deep emotional intensity, still belongs to the nineteenth century. This ambiguity and tension—between its romantic roots and its modernist ambitions—give it a complexity and richness rare in music written in a more settled style. The last measure is emblematic: a D minor triad is quick followed by a dissonant chord, so that there is both the suggestion of finality, as well as a sense of an unanswered question.

The Quartet has two movements, comparable to a traditional sonata allegro and rondo. Despite the difference in their moods, the two are so closely related that they function like halves of a single paragraph—the second movement even begins with the last pitches of the first, so that the break between them is, in effect, no more than a pause for breath in Berg's musical argument.

Over the years, Berg and Schoenberg had a difficult and sometimes stormy relationship, but neither man ever lost his respect for the other's accomplishments. Shortly after Berg's untimely death, Schoenberg recalled how his student's String Quartet had surprised him in the most unbelievable way by the fullness and unconstraint of its musical language, the strength and sureness of its presentation, its careful working and significant originality. That was the time when I moved to Berlin (1911) and he was left to his own devices. He has shown that he was equal to the task.

Program Notes by Phillip Huscher
(http://www.encoreccm.org/pieces/425)

Alban Berg: String Quartet op. 3, I. Langsam

Variation based on the tone row from Berg's Violin Concerto

Variation On A Theme By Alban Berg Session

Balanescu Quartet is an avant-garde string quartet founded in 1987 by Alexander Balanescu that achieved fame through the release of several complex re-interpretations of songs by Kraftwerk and collaborations with Michael Nyman, David Byrne and Goldfrapp amongs others. 

A new compilation, “This Is The Balanescu Quartet”, is available on www.mutebank.com and all good physical and digital retailers.

https://www.facebook.com/BalanescuQuartet

Balanescu Quartet - East

Antonín Dvořák: IV. Finale from String Quartet in G major, op.106

World premiere played by the Signum Quartet, CBSO Centre, Birmingham

Volans String Quartet No. 12 played by the Signum Quartet

Descobri Alben Berg e, imediatamente, por ele fiquei fascinada. Trata-se de uma obra bastante exigente para o intérprete, porém, eu tive o privilégio de a trabalhar com Madalena Soveral,professora rigorosa, mas que, simultâneamente, me permitia uma grande liberdade, no que havia de mais intrínseco, na minha personalidade musical.

Alban Berg - Sonata

Susa Ninna
Peter Louis van Dijk, Arr. B.Bus
Vocaal Ensemble Kerkrade en Helicon
22-12-12

018-Susa Ninna

The Trunk Archives are an ongoing ever growing collection of obscure Beat Antique tracks. These pieces have been collected over the years and never found a spot on our previous releases. The Trunk Achieves is a place for new experimental Beats Antique tracks to find a home. Hope you enjoy... 

Fratres for Violin and Piano - (Arvo Part Remix - Beats Antique)

Thanks to its rousing and lively interpretations and individual programme concepts, the Signum Quartet has made its mark on the international quartet scene and has established itself as one of the most distinguished ensembles of its generation.

Intensive studies with the Alban Berg Quartet, Artemis Quartet and the Melos Quartet as well as collaborations with György Kurtág, Walter Levin, Alfred Brendel, Leon Fleisher and Joerg Widmann have shaped the artistic development of the Signum Quartet, which has won numerous awards (German Music Competition, Premio Paolo Borciani, London International String Quartet Competition) and has been accorded intensive support (i.a. BBC New Generation Artists).

Their recording ‘No.3’, released in May 2013, presents quartets by Bartók, Schnittke and Berg, and in January 2014 was announced as recipient of the International Classical Music Awards 2014 ‘Best Chamber Music Recording’.

Concert appearances have taken the Signum Quartet to international podia from Madrid and Barcelona to Basel and Paris. The quartet has performed at the Hamburg Laeiszhalle, the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, the Luxemburg Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall London, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Boston Harvard Musical Association as well as at the Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau and Schwetzingen Music Festivals and at the BBC Proms.

Regular collaborations with contemporary composers are an integral aspect of the Signum Quartet’s artistic work. Bruno Mantovani will dedicate his String Quartet No. 3 to the ensemble, which they will perform in London, Vienna, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam in the 2016/ 17 season.

Chamber music partners of the quartet include Joerg Widmann, Igor Levit, Nils Moenkemeyer, Adrian Brendel and Dominique Horwitz.

"It is with great pleasure that I listen listen to your energetic earnestness and poetic precision." Wolfgang Rihm on the recording of his Quartettsatz on the CD released in 2012

"The Signum Quartet is an exceptional occurence and deserves utmost attention." Jörg Widmann


Alban Berg: String Quartet op. 3, I. Langsam

Signum Quartett

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