Presents
Anton Reicha
String Quartet in c minor, Op.49 No.1--New Edition
Anton Reicha, (1770-1836, Antonin Rejcha in the Czech form) was born in Prague. Orphaned at an early age, he went to Bavaria and was adopted by his uncle, Joseph Reicha, a concert cellist and music director. He studied violin, flute, piano and composition while with his uncle. In 1785, his family moved to Bonn, where Joseph became music director at the electoral court. There, Anton got to know Beethoven with whom he became life-long friends. He traveled extensively. After living in Paris and Hamburg, in 1801 he moved to Vienna where he studied with Albrechtsberger and Salieri and resumed his friendship with Beethoven and Haydn. In 1806, in part because of the Napoleonic invasion of Vienna, he decided to move to Paris where he spent the rest of his life, eventually becoming a naturalized French citizen. He became a professor at the Paris Conservatory and was one of the most famous teachers of his time. George Onslow, Louise Farrenc, Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Cesar Franck and Charles Gounod were among his many students. He also gained fame as a theorist. He was an innovator in many areas. Though perhaps not the inventor of the Wind Quintet, he was the first to popularize it. A prolific composer, he wrote in virtually every genre. Chamber music is a very important part of his oeuvre. He was always interested in experimenting and in many respects was way ahead of his time dabbling with polytonality and quarter tones. He wrote that he felt the most creative when he experimented trying new things rather than following traditional forms.
His String Quartet in c minor, Op.49 No.1, is the fourth of eight he composed while living in Vienna and the first of a set of three completed around 1802 and published by Breitkopf & Härtel the following year. There is no doubt that he would have been familiar with the Op.18 quartets of his friend Beethoven which came out in 1800. Reicha was eager to show what he could do and what he wanted to do was something very different from what Beethoven had written. It is no coincidence that the key signatures of Reicha's first six quartets, the Op.48 Nos.1-3 and the Op.49 Nos.1-3 were exactly the same as Beethoven's. Beethoven's Op.18 No.4 is in c minor. Reicha's fourth Vienna quartet, Op.49 No.1 is also in c minor. Reicha was interested in creating thematic puzzles with his use of sudden, unprepared modulations into remote keys and his use of rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic dislocations. Beethoven, alone among 19th century composers, finally grasped what Reicha had been doing when he adopted the same techniques twenty years later in his Late Quartets. The first movement, Allegro assai, begins with the lower voices softly playing a dark, brooding theme. Storms break loose suddenly and disappear just as suddenly. The sun peaks out for a moment before a powerful march full of chromaticism explodes. The theme with a dotted pulsing rhythm was something Beethoven was to use in his Op.59 No.3 and then again in his Late Quartets. The second movement, Adagio sempre piano e sostenuto, might well be characterized as an example of fugal writing. Like Beethoven, Reicha was facinated by Bach's Well Tempered Klavier and fugual writing in particular. The third movement, Menuetto, allegro, is perhaps the most conservative of the four movements. Powerful and thrusting with overtones of etude writing. A gentle trio follows. The finale, Allegro, in 6/8 alternaties between dramatic energetic episodes approaching the operatic and cheerful, genial interludes. The sudden mood swings is extraordinary.
Not only is this an historically important work by a composer who was in the vanguard of musical thought but because it is a highly interesting work on its own. Our new edition is based on the Breitkopf edition of 1803. It is a work which belongs in concert but can easily be managed by the average amateur quartet player as it presents no technical problems.
Parts: $24.95
Parts & Score: $34.95
