Carl Nielsen
(1865-1931)
String Quartets
(Complete) Volume 1
String Quartet in E
flat major, Op. 14
String Quartet in F
major, Op. 44
The Danish composer Carl Nielsen was born in 1865, the son of a painter
and village musician in whose band he had his earliest musical experience
playing the violin. In 1879, after learning to play the cornet, he joined a
military orchestra at Odense and by 1884 had been able, with the help of
sponsors, to enter the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen as a student of
the violin, piano and music theory. After graduation in 1886 his compositions
began to win a hearing, with a significant success in 1888 for his Little
Suite, scored for strings. The following year he became a violinist in the
royal chapel, broadening still further his musical experience and in particular
his knowledge of the music of Wagner, a subject of serious study for him in
Germany in 1890. It was here that he began the first of his six symphonies,
completed in 1892. The previous year had brought a visit to Paris and a meeting
with the sculptress Anne Marie Brodersen, whom he married, travelling together
with her to Italy, before the couple returned to Denmark in the summer.
Nielsen's work as a violinist in the royal chapel continued until 1905,
when jealousies eased him out of his position. Now, however, there was a
growing demand for his services as a conductor, particularly of his own works,
and in 1908 he succeeded Johan Svendsen as conductor at the Royal Theatre, a
position he held until 1914. His growing international reputation, particularly
through his symphonies, led to invitations to conduct abroad, while at home he
took a leading part in the musical life of Denmark, teaching at the Copenhagen
Conservatory and later joining the governing body of that institution and
serving the cause of national musical education. He died in 1931.
The leading Danish composer of his generation, Nielsen left, in addition
to his six remarkable symphonies, two operas, concertos for violin and for
clarinet and a number of other orchestral compositions. To choral works and
songs may be added a wind quintet, which enjoys continued popularity, three
violin sonatas, a small quantity of music for the piano, a string quintet and
five completed string quartets. The first of these last, the String Quartet in
D minor, completed in 1882, remained unpublished in the composer's
lifetime, while the String Quartet in G minor, Opus 13, completed in
1888, was revised ten years later. The String Quartet in F minor, Opus
5, was written in 1890, to be followed in 1898 by the String Quartet in
E flat major, Opus 14. A work for string quartet, Piacevolezza, Opus 19,
written in 1906, was revised in 1919 as the String Quartet in F major,
Opus 44.
The String Quartet in
E flat major, Opus 14, was first performed in Copenhagen in May 1899 but the
subsequent loss of the manuscript necessitated a reconstruction, from memory,
for performance in December 1900 and subsequent publication. The sonata-rondo
form first movement is rich in invention, with a declamatory first subject and
a second, introduced by the cello and marked molto tranquillo. There are
moments of intense excitement, rhythmic diversity and contrapuntal ingenuity as
the music takes its sweeping course. The slow movement seems about to start in
the key of A minor but soon finds security in E flat, its thematic statement
underpinned by a sustained note on the cello. The dotted rhythms of the central
section of this ternary movement are introduced by the viola and it is the
cello that returns with the principal theme, accompanied by the generally triplet
rhythms of the violins. The third movement, broadly in the form of a scherzo
and trio, is in C major. The gentle lilt of the opening gives way to
an energetic Presto but subsides into the gently chromatic mood of the
opening, when the Allegretto pastorale returns. The original key of E
flat major is stressed in the cheerful opening theme of the Finale, with
its more chromatic second subject marked molto tranquillo. The central
development has a fascinating variety of musical material and is duly followed
by an emphatic return of the first theme and the more chromatic second. The
movement ends with contrapuntal imitation of a motif from the principal theme
in a now familiar rhythm, leading to a decisive conclusion.
From time to time Nielsen was able to take refuge from the difficulties
of musical life in Copenhagen among friends at Fuglsang. It was there, in 1906,
that he played through his new quartet, Piacevolezza, its original title
taken from the original characteristically descriptive direction at the head of
its first movement, Allegro piacevolo ed indolente, later replaced,
after the revision of the work in 1919, by the more conventional and finally
more apt Allegro non tanto e comodo. The work had its first public
performance in Copenhagen in November 1907. The revised version was first
performed in 1919 and published in 1923 with a dedication to the Copenhagen
Quartet.
The first movement of the String Quartet in F major is one of
great clarity of texture, justification for the composer's own view that at
last he had come to terms with a form that he had first attempted as a student.
In the opening theme, presented by the first violin, followed by the cello and
viola, there are chromatic twists that significantly extend the traditional
concept of tonality, within an established classical form, that of the
sonata-rondo. The innovative nature of the writing is further stressed in the
unusual choice of key for the second
subject, C sharp minor, the enharmonic equivalent of D flat minor. This
subsidiary theme is introduced by the first violin, followed by the cello and
both themes duly appear in the central development section of the movement, the
second theme now in F sharp minor, and in the recapitulation, where the second
subject returns in D minor. The movement ends in a dramatically hushed coda.
The second movement starts with a chordal hymn-like theme, introducing a
ternary structure, the first theme returning to frame a contrasted but thematically
related central section of stronger tension. This C major movement is followed
by an A minor movement that has something of the form of a gentle scherzo and
trio, the latter introduced by the cello, imitated by the first violin.
Grandiose C major chords provide a very brief introduction to the last
movement, with a principal theme of varied rhythmic interest and a more lyrical
secondary theme introduced by the cello. In the central development there is
the beginning of what seems about to be a fugue, with a wandering chromatic
subject introduced by the viola, followed by the second violin and the cello in
turn. Other earlier elements make an appearance before a brief first violin
cadenza and the start of the recapitulation that allows the secondary theme
characteristic moments of contrapuntal imitation.