The Beeb  3's Essential Classics - 2

From the album Quartettsätze/ Quartet Movements (2011)


LANGSAMER SATZ (1905) by Anton Webern (1883-1945)

Anton von Webern's Langsamer Satz (1905) had to wait almost 60 years before receiving its first performance. Arguing that the language of new music must be securely anchored in traditional forms, Arnold Schoenberg sought to discipline his abundantly talented pupil, Webern, by pushing him to write single movements for string quartet. Webern wrote many such pieces, but the Langsamer Satz transcends by far its "assignment" status. Webern biographer Malcolm Hayes has described it as "an exercise in late Romantic soulfulness; its underlying mood of sweet serenity looks back to the tranced, dreamlike mood of Im Sommerwind as well as forward to the new leaner style that Webern was already developing."

The nature-loving Webern took as his inspiration a hiking holiday he made with his cousin (and future wife) Wilhelmine Mortl in the spring of 1905. They visited the Waldwinkel in Lower Austria, a picturesque stretch of countryside to the west of Vienna. Webern later wrote of the trip in his diary, impressing himself with literary flourishes (...): "We wandered through forests. It was a fairyland! High tree trunks all around us, a green luminescence in between, and here and there floods of gold on the green moss. The forest symphony resounded... A walk in the moonlight on flowery meadows - Then the night - [here Webern quotes poet Detlev von Liliencron] "What the night gave to me, will long make me tremble' - Two souls had wed." 

(Programme note taken from: http://www.prx.org/pieces/100448/transcripts/224721)

Anton Webern:  Langsamer Satz (1905)

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 6 & 8 "Unfinished"

Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, D. 485: I. Allegro

Claude Debussy piano pieces 1

Debussy - Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire

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

Road Movies

China Gates

Chopin: Impromptus opp. 29, 36, 51, 66; Valses op. posth.; Ecossaises op. 72 No. 3; Mazurkas opp. 30,2-41,1-63,3-56,2-67,3 u. 4, Polonaise-Fantaisie op.61

Waltz No. 17 in E-Flat Major, Op. posth.

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

Volans String Quartet No. 12 played by the Signum Quartet

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

018-Susa Ninna

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


Anton Webern: Langsamer Satz (1905)

Signum Quartett

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