The album's title, "Dusk over Vienna," refers to the end of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy and the cultural shift from late Romanticism to modernism in Vienna.
Compositional Technique
Anton Webern's 1905 Langsamer Satz for string quartet, featured on this album, does not foreshadow his later development of dodecaphony and serialism, but rather shows a high degree of expressivity.
Composer Biography
Fritz Kreisler, a renowned Austrian violin virtuoso, also gained fame as a composer for charming miniatures like 'Liebesfreud' and 'Liebesleid,' often used as encores.
Historical Context
The composers on this album—Alexander Zemlinsky, Egon Wellesz, Anton Webern, and Fritz Kreisler—were all native Viennese, which is notable given that many famous 'Viennese' composers originated elsewhere.
Performer Biography
The Auner Quartet, the performers on this album, includes musicians from Austrian, Brazilian, Russian, and Belarusian backgrounds, combining their diverse influences into a 'Viennese' sound.
Composition History
Egon Wellesz's String Quartet No. 5, Op. 60, titled 'In memoriam,' was written in 1943 during his exile in Britain as a painful remembrance of what he had lost.
Composer Biography
Alexander Zemlinsky, a composer featured on this album, had occasional exchanges with Johannes Brahms, who offered critical advice on Zemlinsky's compositions.
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