Mendelssohn: String Quartet in a Minor, Op. 13 / Berg: Lyric Suite
10/17/2014, 10 Tracks, 57:37
Featuring
Christian Tetzlaff
Tanja Tetzlaff
Elisabeth Kufferath
Hanna Weinmeister
Tetzlaff Quartet
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Alban Berg
Did you know?
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Interpretation
The Tetzlaff Quartett chose to pair Mendelssohn's Op. 13 and Alban Berg's Lyric Suite because both works challenge them as musicians and are connected to hidden love stories.
Compositional Technique
The Lyric Suite by Alban Berg includes historical quotes, moods evoking different periods, and chorales, which the Tetzlaff Quartett believes should be played with just intonation for perfect major triads.
Compositional Technique
Alban Berg used two successive 'C' notes in the Lyric Suite to refer to Hanna Fuchs-Robbetin's daughter 'Dodo', as 'do' is the Italian solmization syllable for 'C'.
Performer Biography
Tanja Tetzlaff, the cellist of the Tetzlaff Quartett, plays a violoncello made in 1776 by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini.
Composition History
Mendelssohn's Opus 13 was influenced by Beethoven's recently published Opus 132, with Mendelssohn copying themes and even the use of recitative from Beethoven's work.
Compositional Technique
At the end of the Lyric Suite, Alban Berg quotes Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony and refers to Charles Baudelaire's 'De profundis', leading to a very dark and forlorn mood.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The Tetzlaff Quartett notes that Alban Berg encrypted the meaning of individual sections and passages of the Lyric Suite in the score he gave to his great love, Hanna Fuchs-Robbetin.
