Presents
Ignaz Lachner
String Quartet No.3 in C Major, Op.54-New Edition
Ignaz Lachner (1807-1895) was the second of the three famous Lachner brothers. (there were some 16 children in all) His older brother Franz was the best known, having heavily traded on his youthful friendship with Franz Schubert, certainly more than Ignaz who also knew Schubert. Ignaz was taught (as were the others) organ, piano and violin. Upon the latter instrument, he was somewhat of a prodigy, but despite this, his father insisted he become a teacher. After his father’s death, he studied violin with Bernhard Molique, a violin virtuoso and then joined his brother Franz in Vienna where he too befriended and was influenced by Schubert, not to mention Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Though primarily known as a conductor, Lachner composed a considerable amount of music, much of it chamber music, including seven string quartets. His place in music is as a "Classicist-Romantic". His quartets achieved considerable popularity in their time by virtue of their fetching melodies and effective harmonies.
Lachner's String Quartet No.3 in C Major, Op.54 dates from 1858 and was dedicated to the duke of Sachen-Meiningen. Despite the fact that String Quartet No.3 was written well into the Romantic period, it is music which is closer to Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and early Beethoven than to Mendelssohn or Schumann. It is in fact no accident that the air of the Vienna Classical period permeates the work. Even as an old man, he wrote, toward the end of his life, "To the very end, I have been true to the classic composers of Vienna whom I admired so much." The first movement, Allegro moderato, which begins with the cello giving forth the first part of the main theme and the first violin completing it, sounds akin to Beethoven's style in his Op.18 quartets. Without developing any one subject, Lachner introduces lovely theme after theme. The Andantino which follows sounds rather like a sad shepherd's plaint. In third place comes a Scherzo which explodes forth from the opening bars. The rhythm recalls Schubert. There is a nicely contrasting trio. The finale is a gorgeous, Allegretto quasi Andantino, which is the equal in beauty to the best Schubertian melodies. What follows is a 'doff of the cap' to Beethoven as Lachner quotes from Ludwig's Op.18.
Our new edition is based on the original Schott publication of 1858. What a fine work this is. It is sure to please audiences which are lucky enough to hear it in concert but amateur quartet groups will also enjoy it.
Parts: $24.95
Parts & Score: $39.95
