![]() ![]() It sounds probably not unlike you’d imagine a mature Sibelius quartet to sound if you’re familiar with the symphonies. This is not a diaphanous, transparent texture, and that’s not a criticism. John Henken is cited in the Wikipedia article for the work when it says that “The first movement contrasts “murmurous figuration with firm chords”.” One of the most obvious areas of note is the thickness of the sound. It’s closed, blinds drawn, fireplace cracking, snowflakes falling outside, our conversationalists speaking huddled around in a room so as not to disturb the stillness or wake those in another room.īut that’s not to say the music is all whispers and quietude, for it is not. Besides being more than a century distant from Haydn or early Beethoven, Sibelius’s approach is different in that it’s not a casual, friendly conversation that we hear from other quartets. The ‘inner voices’ subtitle is in reference to a “conversational quality” about the work, but this “inwardness” makes it different than, say, a quartet from Haydn, or even one of Sibelius’s more contemporary composers. The work has a duration of about a half hour, and is divided into five movements, as follows:Ĭomposition began in December of 1908, in London, and was apparently finished within a few months. It was then nearly two decades before he wrote another quartet, today’s work, completed in 1909, putting it between the composition of the third and fourth symphonies. 4) was a work in B flat dating from 1890. He had two early quartets, in E flat and in A minor, but his first quartet to be granted an opus number (no. This most famous (and only) mature work in the form is at least his fourth. We’ll get to that soon.Īs for chamber work goes, Sibelius had a number of early efforts in the string quartet genre. It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen Sibelius on the blog (coming up on two years) and even longer since we’ve seen one of his symphonies (about three and a half years). You knew we wouldn’t leave Sibelius out of the Finnish series right? The composer, to his wife about his quartet The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. ![]()
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