String Sextet In G Op. 36

SKU: FG.55011-689-4

ISBN 9790550116894.

Sepp o Pohjola (b. 1965) composed his fifth string quartet, lasting about 20 minutes, in February-March 2018. He was inspired to write it by a visit to the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam the previous year, where he was greatly impressed by the vast, comprehensive retrospective and especially the horrifyingly honest self-portraits. The soft opening tones bear an instruction alluding to Schonberg's Verklarte Nacht string sextet: the quiet music must be richly shaded. The notes in the canon-like part writing almost always change at different moments in each instrument, with a longer or shorter delay. The independent lines weave tightly together. The only dynamic is forte for minutes on end in the powerful closing section. Duration c. 20 minutes. Score (A4) and parts (B4).

SKU: HL.49017071

ISBN 9790001149945. 9.25x12.0x0.128 inches.

Bertold Hummel worked on his Adagietto for many years. Originally conceived as an Elegy for Strings in 1965, it was transformed into an Adagietto for String Sextet in 1978 and published for the first time in 1993. Hummel undertook a further arrangement of the composition in 1999 and participated with musical friends in its first performance. In one of the scores, the title is supplemented by the term “sacrale”, an indication of the religious background of this composition. In a time of increasing secularisation, the creative and no doubt also the reproducing artist have the task of pointing out to their contemporaries the transcendental, the inexplicable and the unprovable. The language of music - most effective perhaps in reaching across world frontiers - has an especially important role in this. Representations of suffering and horror alone cannot be the inherent constituent of a work of art. A reference to comfort and hope is indispensable. Furthermore, life, nature, and, for the believer, knowledge of God give cause enough for praise and thanks.” This is how my father once formulated his artistic conception. A favourite adopted term of his, “musikalische Klangrede” [musical speech), appears to me to be particularly well implemented in the Adagietto.

SKU: BR.PB-33002-07

ISBN 9790004216927. 6.5 x 9 inches.

Eduard Franck's two string sextets, op. 41 in E-flat major, published in 1882/84, and op. 50, in D major, completed in December 1884 but published posthumously in 1894, fall mysteriously outside of their era. They are a significant addition to the rather concise repertoire for string sextet, joining the two works in this genre by Johannes Brahms. Eduard Franck was one of the very few private students of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who was himself a close friend of the Franck family, so that Eduard was firmly rooted in the Mendelssohn tradition. But what is particularly exciting in the sextets, is how he consistently further developed Mendelssohn's immanent genre-defining tendencies, thus founding a conservative alternative to the Schumann-Brahms course.

SKU: BR.EB-32049

ISBN 9790004186473. 9 x 12 inches.

Eduard Franck finished the fair copy of his second string sextet score in December 1884. The piece can thus be described as a typical late work, also evident from its wistful retrospective mood. The sextet's D-major first movement has a concise main theme moving to an expressive secondary theme whereas its final movement is a polyphonic masterpiece: This full, yet transparent movement integrates all the characteristics of the preceding movements in a rhythmically elastic, richly melodic broader context that in the end attains serenity and reconciliation.

SKU: PR.11442131S

UPC: 680160681006.

A lot of chamber music playing went on in Fargo, North Dakota during my teenage years. The participants included both high school friend - my brother, who plays viola, was an is an inveterate chamber music player - and members of parents' generation. The latter included not only professional musicians (the conductor of the Fargo-Moorhead Community Orchestra, who also played cello and was my first composition teacher, his wife, who was the orchestra's concert mistress, and others) but also people from various other walks of life. Although I don't play a string instrument, I was almost always in attendance, with score in hand. (One summer, all the young cellists we played with went to the Interlochen Music Camp, so I got to play the cello parts on the bassoon.) Mostly it was string quartets that were played, but one of the larger pieces I remember being done more than once was the Brahms Sextet in G Major, and I think that the idea for utilizing that combination had been lurking in the back of my mind since then. In the middle 1980's, ideas for a string sextet began appearing in my sketchbooks; one movement (the fourth) was actually completed in one of the sketchbooks. But without a deadline, it's hard for me to finish a major work, since there are always other pieces (with deadlines) waiting to be completed. So when the Composers Showcase at Lincoln Center asked me to put together a retrospective of my work, I knew I wanted to have a premiere on the program, and May 7, 1990 became the deadline that I got the piece done. The work is in six movements, with a symmetrical key pattern; the movements range from the very dramatic to the very easy-going. I had contacted the Lark Quartet, who had commissioned my String Quartet No.2, about forming the core of the sextet. Unfortunately, one of the Larks had a scheduling conflict, but the other three rounded up three more players, and the six of them gave the piece a rousing performance, in spite of the limited rehearsal time. The players were Eva Gruesser, Genovia Cummins, Anna Kruger, Mary Hamman, Astrid Schween and Julia Lichten.
A lot of chamber music playing went on in Fargo, North Dakota during my teenage years. The participants included both high school friend – my brother, who plays viola, was an is an inveterate chamber music player – and members of parents’ generation. The latter included not only professional musicians (the conductor of the Fargo-Moorhead Community Orchestra, who also played cello and was my first composition teacher, his wife, who was the orchestra’s concert mistress, and others) but also people from various other walks of life. Although I don’t play a string instrument, I was almost always in attendance, with score in hand. (One summer, all the young cellists we played with went to the Interlochen Music Camp, so I got to play the cello parts on the bassoon.)Mostly it was string quartets that were played, but one of the larger pieces I remember being done more than once was the Brahms Sextet in G Major, and I think that the idea for utilizing that combination had been lurking in the back of my mind since then. In the middle 1980’s, ideas for a string sextet began appearing in my sketchbooks; one movement (the fourth) was actually completed in one of the sketchbooks. But without a deadline, it’s hard for me to finish a major work, since there are always other pieces (with deadlines) waiting to be completed. So when the Composers Showcase at Lincoln Center asked me to put together a retrospective of my work, I knew I wanted to have a premiere on the program, and May 7, 1990 became the deadline that I got the piece done.The work is in six movements, with a symmetrical key pattern; the movements range from the very dramatic to the very easy-going.I had contacted the Lark Quartet, who had commissioned my String Quartet No.2, about forming the core of the sextet. Unfortunately, one of the Larks had a scheduling conflict, but the other three rounded up three more players, and the six of them gave the piece a rousing performance, in spite of the limited rehearsal time. The players were Eva Gruesser, Genovia Cummins, Anna Kruger, Mary Hamman, Astrid Schween and Julia Lichten.

SKU: PR.114421310

UPC: 680160680993.

A lot of chamber music playing went on in Fargo, North Dakota during my teenage years. The participants included both high school friend - my brother, who plays viola, was an is an inveterate chamber music player - and members of parents' generation. The latter included not only professional musicians (the conductor of the Fargo-Moorhead Community Orchestra, who also played cello and was my first composition teacher, his wife, who was the orchestra's concert mistress, and others) but also people from various other walks of life. Although I don't play a string instrument, I was almost always in attendance, with score in hand. (One summer, all the young cellists we played with went to the Interlochen Music Camp, so I got to play the cello parts on the bassoon.) Mostly it was string quartets that were played, but one of the larger pieces I remember being done more than once was the Brahms Sextet in G Major, and I think that the idea for utilizing that combination had been lurking in the back of my mind since then. In the middle 1980's, ideas for a string sextet began appearing in my sketchbooks; one movement (the fourth) was actually completed in one of the sketchbooks. But without a deadline, it's hard for me to finish a major work, since there are always other pieces (with deadlines) waiting to be completed. So when the Composers Showcase at Lincoln Center asked me to put together a retrospective of my work, I knew I wanted to have a premiere on the program, and May 7, 1990 became the deadline that I got the piece done. The work is in six movements, with a symmetrical key pattern; the movements range from the very dramatic to the very easy-going. I had contacted the Lark Quartet, who had commissioned my String Quartet No.2, about forming the core of the sextet. Unfortunately, one of the Larks had a scheduling conflict, but the other three rounded up three more players, and the six of them gave the piece a rousing performance, in spite of the limited rehearsal time. The players were Eva Gruesser, Genovia Cummins, Anna Kruger, Mary Hamman, Astrid Schween and Julia Lichten.
A lot of chamber music playing went on in Fargo, North Dakota during my teenage years. The participants included both high school friend – my brother, who plays viola, was an is an inveterate chamber music player – and members of parents’ generation. The latter included not only professional musicians (the conductor of the Fargo-Moorhead Community Orchestra, who also played cello and was my first composition teacher, his wife, who was the orchestra’s concert mistress, and others) but also people from various other walks of life. Although I don’t play a string instrument, I was almost always in attendance, with score in hand. (One summer, all the young cellists we played with went to the Interlochen Music Camp, so I got to play the cello parts on the bassoon.)Mostly it was string quartets that were played, but one of the larger pieces I remember being done more than once was the Brahms Sextet in G Major, and I think that the idea for utilizing that combination had been lurking in the back of my mind since then. In the middle 1980’s, ideas for a string sextet began appearing in my sketchbooks; one movement (the fourth) was actually completed in one of the sketchbooks. But without a deadline, it’s hard for me to finish a major work, since there are always other pieces (with deadlines) waiting to be completed. So when the Composers Showcase at Lincoln Center asked me to put together a retrospective of my work, I knew I wanted to have a premiere on the program, and May 7, 1990 became the deadline that I got the piece done.The work is in six movements, with a symmetrical key pattern; the movements range from the very dramatic to the very easy-going.I had contacted the Lark Quartet, who had commissioned my String Quartet No.2, about forming the core of the sextet. Unfortunately, one of the Larks had a scheduling conflict, but the other three rounded up three more players, and the six of them gave the piece a rousing performance, in spite of the limited rehearsal time. The players were Eva Gruesser, Genovia Cummins, Anna Kruger, Mary Hamman, Astrid Schween and Julia Lichten.

SKU: BR.EB-32045

ISBN 9790004186459. 9 x 12 inches.

The Sextet No. 1 op. 41 by Eduard Franck is one of his opp. 41-47 works published in 1882/84 in rapid succession, though its genesis would more likely be considerably earlier. It is an essential and important addition to the sextet repertoire, joining the two other works in this genre by Johannes Brahms.