Various Composers - Viennese Legacy, Vol. II (Quatuor Rosamonde)

Information

• Franz Schubert - Quartettsatz, D. 703: No. 12 in C Minor, Allegro assai
• Anton Webern - Langsamer Satz für Streichquartett, M. 78: Langsam, mit bewegtem Ausdruck
• Alban Berg - Streichquartett, Op. 3
• Anton Webern - Fünf Sätze, Op. 5
• Anton Webern - Sechs Bagatellen, Op. 9
• Anton Webern - Quartett, Op. 28

Quatuor Rosamonde

    Agnès Sulem-Bialobroda, violin

    Hugo Meder, violin

    Jean Sulem, viola

    Xavier Gagnepain, cello

Date: 2025

Label: Pierre Verany

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The second of the Quatuor Rosamonde’s recordings devoted to the Viennese School focuses on the Second Viennese School, which developed under the guidance of its founder, Arnold Schoenberg. This recording highlights his two principal disciples: Alban Berg (1885–1935) and Anton Webern (1883–1945). The cleverly constructed program of this disc clearly reveals the line of succession connecting the two Viennese schools.

Beginning with Schubert’s Quartettsatz (quartet movement) (1797–1828), the program continues with an early work by Webern, the Langsamer Satz (slow movement) from 1905, still steeped in a Romanticism rooted in the aesthetic of this composer, who died at thirty-one. This is followed by Alban Berg’s First Quartet, his Opus 3 (1910), whose intense lyricism reveals a profoundly Romantic temperament that would remain throughout his work.

Then come the rare quartet pieces that Webern officially published—his only ones in this genre to carry opus numbers: the Five Movements, Opus 5 (1909), the Six Bagatelles, Opus 9 (1913), and the String Quartet, Opus 28 (1938). The sequence of these works shows a progressively radical evolution. Not only does Webern break with the post-Romantic aesthetic, but he also abandons large-scale form: the total duration of these three works does not even reach twenty-five minutes. Moreover, marked by atonality (Opuses 5 and 9) and later by serialism (Opus 28), his writing becomes increasingly cerebral, yet remains rich in inventive sound exploration and expressiveness.

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