Rondo in C minor (Bruckner)

Rondo in C minor
by Anton Bruckner

Portrait of the composer
Catalogue WAB deest
Performed 17 August 1984 – Vienna
Scoring String quartet

The Rondo in C minor (WAB deest) is a composition for string quartet by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner. It was written in 1862 but was not performed publicly until 1984, after the composer's death. A critical edition was first published in 1985 and the piece was first recorded in 1992 by the Raphael Quartet.

History

Bruckner composed his String Quartet in 1862 as a student exercise assigned by his form and orchestration teacher, Otto Kitzler.[1] Kitzler, on reviewing Bruckner's work, suggested that a more fully developed final rondo movement would have benefited the piece. Bruckner responded by creating this new large rondo form, creating a new work significantly different in musical content from the original as well as noticeably longer, with a performance time of approximately five minutes. However, Bruckner did not intend for the Quartet to be publicly performed with either rondo, or for the Rondo in C minor to be performed independently, as he saw these compositions only as technical studies for the purposes of practicing form.[2][3]

The autograph date on the work is 15 August 1862. The Rondo in C minor was part of the Kitzler Studienbuch, a collection of autographs and sketches created during Bruckner's studies with Kitzler, and like much of this collection it was not widely known or distributed until well after the composer's death.[4] The Rondo in C minor was premiered on 17 August 1984 in Vienna as part of a celebration of the eightieth birthday of Leopold Nowak, the musicologist known for editing the works of Bruckner.[5] Nowak's edited critical edition of the Rondo was first published in 1985.[6]

The work was not known at the time of Renate Grasberger's thematic catalogue of Bruckner's music, Werkverzeichnis Anton Bruckners (WAB), and so is referred to as "WAB deest".

Music

The piece in C minor and 2/4 time is sparingly notated, with few indications of dynamic. Writing for AllMusic, Wayne Reisig remarks that the work's "overall fleet mood will bring to mind Mendelssohn".[2] The reviewer Richard Whitehouse notes that the Rondo's "less angular phrasing and the secondary theme's more expansive manner give the composer greater room to elaborate his material" than in the String Quartet's original rondo. He also describes "a more fully developed central section, serving to place less emphasis on the themes at their reappearance" and a coda that "draws on more imitative means to less forceful ends".[7] The critic Robert Markow for the music publication Fanfare suggests that the Rondo "sounds far more like Haydn than like the Bruckner we know from the symphonies that were soon to follow".[8]

Discography

There are only a few performances of Bruckner's Rondo in C minor:

References

  1. ↑ Gault, Dermot (2013). The New Bruckner. Ashgate. pp. 13–14.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Reisig, Wayne. "Rondo for string quartet in C minor by Anton Bruckner". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Staines, Joe, ed. (2010). The Rough Guide to Classical Music (5th ed.). Rough Guides. p. 118. ISBN 9781405383219.
  4. ↑ Hawkshaw, Paul. "A Composer Learns His Craft: Anton Bruckner's Lessons in Form and Orchestration, 1861–63". The Musical Quarterly 82 (2): 336–361. doi:10.1093/mq/82.2.336.
  5. ↑ van Zwol, C (2012). Anton Bruckner – Leven en Werken. Thot. p. 676. ISBN 90-686-8590-2.
  6. ↑ "Anton Bruckner Critical Complete Edition". MWV. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  7. ↑ Whitehouse, Richard (2008). "Review of BRUCKNER: String Quintet in F Major / String Quartet in C Minor". Naxos. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  8. ↑ Markow, Robert (2010). "First Steps". Fanfare 34 (1): 543–544.

Sources

External links