String Quartets for Spring: Violin: Score

Three Divertimenti Plus The Spring Dissonance And Prussian No.- Quartets-Divertimenti were a popular genre in the 18th century offering listeners a lighthearted 'diversion' at social functions. Mozart wrote these three pieces for string quartet in Salzburg in 1772. The three-movement Italian-style compositions require only wind parts to assume another form hence their common description as the 'Salzburg Symphonies.'This authoritative inexpensive edition of the ever-popular composer's works features three additional quartets: 'Spring ' 'Dissonance ' and 'Prussian No. 1' QuartetsDover Original.

PrefaceThe three movements of the quartet may be perceived as three different expressions of an unstable core: an inherent unrest leads to frequent changes of direction. The first movement is full of dramatic contrasts; it is followed by a second movement whose basic mood of meditative rest is challenged by occasional centrifugal utbursts while the third movement takes the inherent conflicts to a higher level contrasting material of introspective lyricism with excessively pathetic moods.The final ?way out? is a retrograde one (back) ?into the source?: through a constant accelerando-diminuendo the piece disappears into a vanishing point. The ?into thesource? of the title may be visualized as a reversed fountain-action: the broad fan-like spread of the first movement a more coherent-solid second movement and finally - in the third movement - a return-run ever more vehemently like a suction into the spring itself ?The musical motifs are varied; there are traffic-situations (which I heard!) with stomping and machine-like rhythms in different but simultaneous tempi and there are more abstract upwards and downwards half-tone-scales with changing accents creating glimpses of melodies.INTO THE SOURCE String Quartet No. 9 was composed on a double-commission from the Orion Quartet and the Vertavo Quartet. The premiere performances took places in Santa Fé in 2002 and in Oslo in 2003.Per Nørgård

The quartet in a minor is one of the chamber music works with which Schubert wanted to “pave the way to the great symphony” in spring 1824. At the same time he was paving his way to a wider audience as the“Rosamunde” Quartet was the first and only string quartet that was not only publicly performed in Schubert’s lifetime but also published in parts. It is fortunate for us that this was the case because theautograph of this much-loved quartet is missing today and the only source for the work is the first edition. And this is precisely where the challenge lies as the parts exhibit some inaccuracies regarding the articulation anddynamics. They have had to be carefully resolved something which our new Urtext edition has done in an exemplary fashion. Its name can be traced back to Schubert’s incidental music to the play Rosamunde which can be heardat the beginning of the Andante. Quite a few people might however be reminded of the Impromptu in B flat major op. post. 142 no. 3 in which Schubert later once again took up the beautiful melody.