Artis Quartett Wien

Zemlinsky (1871-1942) wished to follow his brother-in-law Schoenberg and his modernism, but the style did not appeal to him. His Second Quartet from 1910-1915 is one of the most modern pieces he wrote. Some even claim to hear in it an homage to Schoenberg's First String Quartet. To Zemlinsky, however, the work represented a break: after this string quartet, he gave himself over completely to what would come to be called 'Jugendstil in music': with his personal melodic character and sense of ornamentation, Zemlinksy remained faithful to late-Romanticism. 'Intimate Letters' is a work that Janácek (1854-1928) wrote towards the end of his life for his young mistress Kamila Stösslova. The work is bursting with modernity and is pure Janácek throughout: dissolute and free from established norms, wild in its outbursts and inconstant in its melodic, rhythmic and harmonic capriciousness. The Second Quartet from 2002 by the American composer Tania Gabrielle French (b. 1963) strikes one as classical. Despite references to Haydn, she still employs a lively and contemporary tonal language. Her music also resonates with the quartet approach typical of Bartók. In this work, French succeeds in creating an all-encompassing summary of the string quartet, from its genesis to the present day.