Franz Lachner - String Quartet No. 1 /String Quintet in C-minor, Op.121

Franz Lachner

 (1803 – 1890 /87세) was a German composer and conductor.

 

 

 String Quartet No. 1 (1843 /40세)

Painting Info - "Ancient Bridge" by blinck on deviantart.

I. Allegro Moderato - 00:00
II. Adagio Quasi Andante - 10:45
III. Scherzo - Allegro Assai - 19:22
IV. Finale - Allegro Agitato - 24:49

String Quartet No.1 is dates from the late 1830's and was published in 1843.

 

The first movement, Allegro moderato, is, like many of Haydn's movements, monothematic. Without a contrasting second theme, Lachner instead creates an expressive and somewhat sad lyrical mood from the same melody and cleverly uses counterpoint.

 

The second movement, Adagio quasi andante, begins with an ethereal, otherworldly introduction, which is in part created because there is no bass. The lovely main theme has a very vocal quality which becomes especially apparent in an answering duet between the viola and first violin. When Lachner takes the theme into the major, a Schubertian aura is created.

 

The fleet and driving Scherzo which follows is of a sort one encounters in Mendelssohn. The contrasting trio section is a stately country dance.

 

The main theme of the finale, Allegro agitato, has an urgent and pleading quality.<출처: 유튜브>

 

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String Quintet in C-minor, Op.121 (1834 /  rev. 1866 /31세-63세)

Mov.I: Allegro moderato 00:00
Mov.II: Andante con moto 09:32
Mov.III: Scherzo: Allegro assai 19:47
Mov.IV: Finale: Andantino - Allegro assai 27:25

Ensemble: Musica Varia Ensemble

 

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Franz Lachner (1803-90) was born in Rain am Lech, a small Bavarian town and trained in Munich. In 1823, by winning a musical competition, Lachner was awarded a position as an organist in a church in Vienna. In Vienna, he met Schubert. "We two, Schubert and I, spent most of our time together sketching new compositions. We were the closest of friends, mornings performing for each other and discussing in depth every imaginable topic with the greatest of candor." It should come as no surprise then that Schubert influenced Lachner's musical compositions more than anyone else. He left Vienna in 1834 and returned to Munich where he remained the rest of his life, serving as Conductor of the Royal Bavarian Orchestra from 1834 to 1868. He also held the position of Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory. Lachner's string quartets were much admired and often performed. Mendelssohn was fascinated by them and Schumann called Lachner the most talented composer in southern Germany. Writing twenty years later, Tchaikovsky noted that Lachner had to be placed near the pinnacle of fine composers.( 유튜브 해설)
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Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family (his brothers Ignaz, Theodor and Vinzenz also became musicians). He studied music with Simon Sechter and Maximilian, the Abbé Stadler. He conducted at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. In 1834, he became Kapellmeister at Mannheim. In 1835 he received the first prize for symphonic composition at Vienna with his Sinfonia passionata, and became royal Kapellmeister at Munich, becoming a major figure in its musical life, conducting at the opera and various concerts and festivals. His career there came to a sudden end in 1864 after Richard Wagner's disciple Hans von Bülow took over Lachner's duties. Lachner remained officially in his post on extended leave for a few years until his contract expired.

Bust of Lachner on his grave at the Alter Südfriedhof in Munih

 

Lachner was a well-known and prolific composer in his day, though he is not now considered a major composer. His work, influenced by Ludwig van Beethoven and his friend Franz Schubert, is regarded as competent and craftsman-like, but is now generally little known. Among his greatest successes were his opera Catharina Cornaro (1841, preceding Donizetti's own opera by three years), his Requiem, and his seventh orchestral suite (1881).

 

In the present day it may be his organ sonatas (Opp. 175, 176, 177) and chamber music, in particular his music for wind instruments, that receive the most attention, though his string quartets and some of his eight symphonies have been performed and recorded. His songs, some of which are set to the same texts that Schubert used, contributed to the development of the German Lied.

For performances of Luigi Cherubini's Médée in Frankfurt in 1855, Lachner composed recitatives to replace the original spoken dialogue, and it was this version, translated into Italian, which was used in many twentieth-century revivals and recordings of that opera.(영여위키백과 해설)