# On listening to Schoenberg's String Quartets.



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Following in the footsteps of a recent thread on Bartok, I wonder if anyone has any thoughts about what to look out for in the four Schoenberg quartets. Key recordings, best bits, what he was trying to say and do, that sort of thing.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I can't even begin to provide a brief analysis of these works -- but DGG once issued a box set of the complete works for quartet by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern by the LaSalle Quartet. I don't know if it was ever reissued on CD, but it was great -- and the LP set came with an extraordinarily good book of analytical essays.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

GGluek said:


> I can't even begin to provide a brief analysis of these works -- but DGG once issued a box set of the complete works for quartet by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern by the LaSalle Quartet. I don't know if it was ever reissued on CD, but it was great -- and the LP set came with an extraordinarily good book of analytical essays.


I have it, _including_ the massively thick booklet. It _is_ excellent.










It _has_ been reissued by Brilliant, but I don't know if the (very thick) booklet is included.










This is _another_ key recording. I am thrilled to have both sets.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Schoenberg wrote 5 string quartets, actually, and the first one, while juvenilia, is an important piece of juvenilia that was praised by no less than Brahms himself. It's also included in the La Salle set.

The String Quartet No. 1 in D minor is, I think, Schoenberg's first real mature work, fully assured and densely contrapuntal, with every theme in the piece related back to the opening pages. Berg did a good analysis of those pages in his essay _Why is Schoenberg's Music So Difficult to Understand?_, here. As far as technical advances, the quartet features quartal harmony, sul ponticello bowing, harmonics, and many other things that would become staples of Schoenberg's string writing, and none of it is simply for effect.

The String Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp minor is justly famous, although its final movement's status as "the first atonal music" has been challenged at times. Regardless, the music is excellent whether or not it sets any kind of precedent. The main thing that sets this work apart from the previous, aside from the addition of a soprano, is its concision. The first movement is a kind of shorthand sonata form, the second a terse scherzo with two trios, and the third an adagio spun out from the first movement's themes. The fourth movement, after all of the weighty struggles of the previous three, seems to open completely weightless, reinforced by the muted string timbre; from there it undergoes mercurial shifts between serenity and strife, before finishing with a tragic coda that unexpectedly (but not without preparation) ends on a triad of F-sharp major.

The String Quartet No. 3 is one of the early masterpieces of his 12-tone technique, and it's significant that he was never able to write a full string quartet in his "free atonal" style. The 12-tone method provided a structure that would have been very difficult to maintain otherwise. In contrast to the previous works, this one adheres very closely to traditional forms, probably in order to give audiences something to hold onto in an unfamiliar language, so the first movement is a sonata-allegro with two themes, the second a double theme and variations, the third is a dance-like intermezzo, and the fourth a rondo. I find the emphasis on bare fifths in the bass (particularly pairs of them a tritone apart) gives this work a bit of a folk-like quality.

The String Quartet No. 4 was written after Schoenberg emigrated to the US, and its use of the 12-tone technique, like that in the Piano Concerto or String Trio, is somewhat less strict than before. This work seems to be dominated by march-like themes and rhythms, especially in its first and last movements. The middle two movements are a dance-like scherzo and a mournful adagio, beginning with a unison melody on all four instruments.

We also have fragments of a String Quartet No. 5 that was never finished. The composer was still at the height of his powers, as his last several works attest, and we can only wonder what might have been if he had lived to complete the work. They have been recorded alongside (extremely early) juvenilia and other fragments on this disc:


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