"Between 1894 and 1916 Stenhammar composed a total of seven string quartets, of which one (F minor, 1897) was withdrawn immediately after its first performance. In Scandinavian music of its time, this series of quartets is unique both in its consistency and in its musical aspirations.
"'String Quartet No. 3 in F major', Op. 18 (1897-1900): Stenhammar composed the first movement of his Third String Quartet in an intensive creative period in 1897, but did not add the remaining movements until 1900. In the meantime, following the première of his opera 'Tirfing', Op. 15, he had gone through a phase of deep depression. Although audience reactions to 'Tirfing' had been positive, with hindsight the opera did not measure up to Stenhammar's own standards. Around 1900 Stenhammar was grappling in depth with his compositional ideas, and developed a self-critical attitude that would leave its mark on his future works. At the same time there was a more matieral - and indeed pecuniary - background to the crisis. In 1894 he had promised his published (Henrik Hennings in Copenhagen) to deliver a fixed number of compositions per year. After 'Tirfing' it became increasingly clear to him that this contract was depriving him of his freedom to compose. As he wrote to Hennings, Stenhammar no longer had any desire to be a 'worker at a composition factory'. In August 1899 he terminated the contract; after that, he had to earn a living from his appearances as a pianist and conductor, which significantly curtailed the time that he could devote to composition.
"The F major Quartet, Op. 18, was the first major instrumental work that Stenhammar completed and published after the crisis. It clearly documents his high aspirations as a composer, and explicitly names the benchmark: Ludwig van Beethoven. Stenhammar's contemporaries already observed that the first movement's principal motif alludes to the beginning of Beethoven's first 'Razumovsky' Quartet, Op. 59 No. 1. The context in which Stenhammar places this motif is, however, remarkable: soloistically from the viola, with short, fragmentary comments from the other three instruments. This technique was also based on tradition, and can be traced back to late Beethoven, as used for instance in the German composer's final string quartet, Op. 135, which is also in F major. In a nutshell: here Stenhammar views mid-period Beethoven from the perspective of late Beethoven. What is the function of these allusions? By no means should they be seen as involuntary reminisces, or as an attempt to imitate the style. Instead, during the course of the movement, Stenhammar emphasizes not the proximity to his role model, Beethoven, but rather the distance that he has managed to travel from that style. This is all the more apparent in the finale. The prelude ('Presto motlo agitato') toys with motivic fragments from the scherzo, in the manner of a free eighteenth-century fantasy. The ensuing fugue once again takes an allusion to Beethoven as its point of departure: the theme of the fugal opening movement of his Op. 131 Quartet. It is fascinating to follow how, throughout the movement, Stenhammar makes the distance from his model more clearly heard. In the first, contrapuntally strict fugal section this is initially achieved through a variet of sophisticated harmonic modulations. Later, the strict ricercare fugue is carried away by the irresistable pull of the motivic writing, which ultimately leads to a thematic outburst (no longer even slightly fugal in style) and a capricious stretto. With a further motivic transformation the movement ends unexpectedly, returning to the dream-like atmosphere of the first movement's coda. The middle movements, too, do not try to conceal that they were composed around 1900. The 'Perpetuum mobile', with its abrupt beginning, was perceived by contemporary reviewers as 'a depiction of the nervous bustling and anxiety of our age'. The third movement, a set of variations in B-flat minor, initially seems to be self-contained, although its coda once more alludes to Beethoven, this time the coda of the Ninth Symphony's first movement. Even the quartet's calmest and most lyrical section thus participates in the interaction with tradition.
"'String Quartet No. 4 in A minor', Op. 25 (1904-09): The Fourth String Quartet, too, comes from a period of change in Stenhammar's life. He sketched the overall scheme of the first movement as early as 1904, but did not flesh it out until the winter of 1906-07, which he and his entire family spent in Florence. Stenhammar had earned his long-awaited trip to Florence - which was intended to give him time to compose undisturbed - with a heavy schedule of concerts as a pianist during the preceding season. In addition, Henrik Hennings had held out the prospect of a private grant from Danish music-lovers. But Hennings had promised more than he could deliver. When it became apparent that he could not raise the sum involved, the relationship between composer and publisher was irretrievable soured. In the strained circumstances, Stenhammar received a prestigious offer from Gothenburg: to be the conductor of the city's newly formed symphony orchestra. He accepted, and in the period from 1907 until 1922 turned the orchestra into one of the finest in Scandinavia. His free time for composing, however, was thereby permanently restricted to the summer months. Completion of the remaining movements of the String Quartet in A minor was thus delayed until the summer of 1909.
"The extended genesis of the work is not, however, discernible from listening to the piece; in fact the Fourth String Quartet sounds as if it had been written in a single burst. This is the most important of Stenhammar's string quartets and, more than almost any other work, proves his abilities as a composer: a supreme command of a wide range of traditions and models, harmonic sophistication pushing the very limits of functional tonality, artistry in the transformation of motifs and an interconnectedness that spans the entire work.
"Stenhammar's own conviction that he had done justice to his highest aspirations in his Fourth String Quartet is clearly shown by the fact that he dedicated this work to his friend and colleague Jean Sibelius. Sibelius, in return, dedicated his Sixth Symphony to Stenhammar - a fact that is little-known today, as the dedication was written on an extra page before the score itself, and later editions have no included it.
"In the A minor Quartet, Stenhammar continued along the same path that he had followed in its F major predecessor, but once again significantly increased the range of contrasts that he seeks to convey. This is shown in an exemplary manner by the themes of the first movement. It begins with a semiquaver run from the first violin above a diminished chord from the other instruments: this is a direct reference to Beethoven - a terse figure that alludes to the beginning of his A minor Quartet, Op. 132. This is immediately followed by a wan, archaic melody, set like a choral, briefly undermined by unexpected harmonies. Melodically this passage refers to the cadential formulae of Swedish folk songs, but harmonically it reflects the then contemporary procedures of chromatically altered harmony. From these very different points of departure, Stenhammar proceeds so logically that, by the end of the movement, he can reveal that all of the thematic elements share a common nucleus. He also avoid any kind of formal stereotypes. The expressive subsidiary theme, supported by a dense accompanimental texture, does not start out in the C major that would be expected in traditional sonata form, but rather in the remote key of D-flat major, far away in the circle of fifths. The development and recapitulation, too, are not easily separated but overlap in an unconventional manner.
"Similar tendencies can be found in the slow movement as well. Stenhammar confronts the dream, opulent 'Adagio' theme with a violin figure that can with justification be described as atonal. The harmonically advanced repetition of the theme, which emerges from this confrontation, demands the utmost concentration from the players in the richly figured accompanimental structure. In the five-part scherzo, nervous tension is created by the skilful use of fugato techniques that conflict with the underlying metre; not until we reach the extensive coda is this dynamic energy reined back. As a finale there is a slow variation movement based on the Swedish folk song 'Och riddaren han talte till unga Hillevi' ('And the Knight Spoke to Young Hillevi'). The eleven variations, some of which are quite far removed from the theme itself, are linked together at an underlying level, both harmonically and motivically. At the end of the movement, when finally the solo run from the beginning of the work grows out of the exuberant figurations, the music has come full circle: late Beethoven, the folks style and chromatically altered harmony - all of these grow out of a single point of departure and everything ultimately leads back to the same place. The game could begin all over again.
"'Elegy and Intermezzo from the incidental music to Hjalmar Bergman's play 'Lodolezzi sjunger' ('Lodolezzi Sings')', Op. 39 (1919): These two movements not only come from a different creative period in Stenhammar's career than the Third and Fourth String Quartets, but also have an entirely different purpose. They were composed in 1919 as part of the incidental music for a production put on by Per Lindberg, a young theatre director from Gothenburg. The Elegy served as an overture, whilst the Intermezzo was heard between Act II and Act III. The drama 'Lodolezzi Sings' by Hjalmar Bergman, which the playwright - not without irony - described as a 'romantic comedy', is about an aging opera singer Renée Lodolezzi who, after years away from the limelight and after numerous psychological complications, finally dares to take the stage again. The play ends with her triumphant performance (invisible to the theatre audience). Stenhammar chose a string quartet to perform the incidental music; in the Elegy a flute makes two brief appearances as well, heard from afar (on this recording its part is played by the second violin). As befits its function as an overture, the Elegy sets the emotional tone of the drama. The singer's extrovert tendencies and her fundamentally depressive mood are reflected in the melodic entries, which do possess potential for pathos, but also remain harmonically unstable, dissolving back into nothingness. Whereas the Elegy can be understood as a psychological profile of the main character, the Intermezzo represents the world to which Renée Lodolezzi is venturing to return: the great European nineteenth-century operas, including the last role she sang, from Ambroise Thomas's 'Mignon'. The Intermezzo has the form of a two-part opera scena, with a recitative and aria as the first part, followed by a more extensive second part which Stenhammar wryly marks 'Andante molto italiano'. The first violin and cello sing a veritable love duet, and the Italiante character is made evidence by means of 'portamenti' and second violin's mandolin-like 'pizzicati'. At the same time, Stenhammar mockingly shatters this image with metrical irregularities and contrapuntal complications. Here the composer uses techniques that he had already tried out in his last two string quartets - No. 5 in C major 'Serenade', Op. 29 (1910) and No. 6 in D minor, Op. 35 (1916)." (Signe Rotter-Broman, 2013. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Stenhammar Quartet
1. String Quartet In A Minor, Op. 25: I. Allegro Ma Non Troppo
2. String Quartet In A Minor, Op. 25: II. Adagio
3. String Quartet In A Minor, Op. 25: III. Scherzo. Allegro
4. String Quartet In A Minor, Op. 25: IV. Aria Variata. Andante Semplice
5. Lodolezzi Sjunger, Op. 39: Elegi. Lento
6. Lodolezzi Sjunger, Op. 39: Intermezzo. Allegro Agitato
7. String Quartet No. 3 In F Major, Op. 18: I. Quasi Andante
8. String Quartet No. 3 In F Major, Op. 18: II. Presto Molto Agitato
9. String Quartet No. 3 In F Major, Op. 18: III. Lento Sostenuto
10. String Quartet No. 3 In F Major, Op. 18: IV. Presto Molto Agitato - Molto Moderato
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