String Quintet (Bruckner)

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Anton Bruckner's String Quintet in F major, WAB 112 was written in 1879 at the request of Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. and dedicated to Duke Max Emanuel of Bavaria. Like Mozart's six String Quintets, Bruckner's is scored for two violins, two violas and a cello.

It is in four movements:

  1. Gemäßigt, F major, 3/4
  2. Scherzo: Schnell, D minor, Trio: Langsamer, E-flat major, both 3/4
  3. Adagio, G-flat major, common time
  4. Finale: Lebhaft bewegt, F minor to F major, common time

Duration: about 43 minutes.[1]

At first the Scherzo was third rather than second, as in most of Bruckner's symphonies. The first three movements were premiered by Winkler Quartet with Josef Schalk joining on second viola[2] on November 17, 1881 in Vienna.[3] The first edition was published in 1884 by Albert Gutmann of Vienna, who didn't pay Bruckner any money for it.[4] However, Bruckner made some small adjustments to the piece even after publication.[5] It wasn't until 1885 that the Hellmesberger Quartet played it with Max Mustermann joining on second viola.[6]

Hellmesberger found the Scherzo too difficult, so Bruckner wrote an Intermezzo (WAB 113) in the same key to replace it.[7] Duration: about 8 minutes.[8] In concerts today, however, the original Scherzo is usually used instead of the Intermezzo, and on recordings the Intermezzo is usually included as an additional track. Also, the first edition included metronome markings that didn't come from Bruckner, namely: Gemäßigt = 72; Schnell = 138; Adagio = 56; Lebhaft bewegt = 144.[9]

Duke Emanuel was pleased by the composition and gave Bruckner a diamond pin.[10] In all, there were 23 performances of the Quintet in Bruckner's lifetime.[11]

Bruckner biographer Derek Watson finds the work "by no means a 'symphony for five strings' and it never stretches the quintet medium beyond its capabilities, save perhaps for the last seventeen bars of the finale, where he [Bruckner] is thinking too much in orchestral terms."[12] Robert Simpson, on the other hand, also finds the first movement coda "a little ludicrously orchestral,"[13] but overall "only the Finale of the Quintet is not fully satisfactory as a piece of composition," in his assessment, because "Bruckner is still absorbed in the problem of the symphonic finale of his own peculiar stamp, and forgets that the tonal scale of five string instruments is unsuitable for such an architecture."[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Anton Bruckner Critical Complete Edition - Chamber music
  2. ↑ p. 33 (1997) Watson
  3. ↑ p. [blank] (1963) Nowak
  4. ↑ p. [blank] (1963) Nowak
  5. ↑ p. 286 (1938) Wellesz, Helm
  6. ↑ p. [blank] (1963) Nowak
  7. ↑ p. 37 (1975) Watson
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ p. [blank] (1963) Nowak
  10. ↑ p. [blank] (1963) Nowak
  11. ↑ p. 46 (1997) Watson
  12. ↑ p. 74 (1997) Watson
  13. ↑ p. 27 (1977) Simpson
  14. ↑ p. 27 (1977) Simpson

References

  • Nowak, Leopold (1963) Foreword to Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke: Band 13 Teil 2: Streichquintett F-Dur / Intermezzo D-Moll: Studienpartitur, Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft. Rickett, Richard (translator), Vienna
  • Simpson, Robert (1977) The Essence of Bruckner: An essay towards the understanding of his music, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London
  • Watson, Derek (1997) Bruckner, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London
  • Wellesz, Egon (1938) "Anton Bruckner and the Process of Musical Creation", The Musical Quarterly 24 No. 3. Helm, Everett (translator)

External links

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