Presents
Alberto Nepomuceno
String Quartet No.2 in g minor
Alberto Nepomuceno (1864-1920) was born in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza. His father, Vitor Augusto Nepomuceno was a violin professor and it was with him that Nepomuceno had his first music lessons. In 1888, he was able to leave for Europe to further his musical studies. In Rome he studied with Giovanni Sgambatti. In 1890, he moved to Berlin where he studied composition with Heinrich von Herzogenberg and continued his piano studies with the famous teacher Theodor Lechetitzky. In Lechetitzky’s class, he met a Norwegian student whom he married in 1893. She had been a student and friend of Edvard Grieg and Nepomuceno moved to Bergen after his wedding and lived in Grieg’s house. Grieg, of course, was a proponent of nationalism in composition. Nepomuceno’s friendship with Grieg was instrumental in convincing him to write music which reflected Brazilian culture. Before leaving Europe he visited Paris where he met such luminaries as Saint Saens and D’Indy. He subsequently returned to Brazil where he taught at the Institutio Nacional de Musica in Rio de Janiero. Later Mahler engaged him to conduct at the Vienna Opera but illness prevented this. He eventually returned to Europe in 1910 for a series of concerts in Brussels, Geneva and Paris. During this trip he became good friends with Debussy. Back in Brazil, he fought for the use of Portuguese in opera and song and remained the leading musical personality there until his death. Heitor Villa Lobos was among his many students.
Nepomuceno composed three string quartets. They all date from his time in Europe. String Quartet No.2 is dated in his own hand, Berlin 1890. Only two movements were ever performed during his lifetime. Interestingly, unlike Quartet Nos. 1 and 3, this quartet has appeared in four different versions and some scholars even considered one of these as his fouth string quartet. Unfortunately, no one version can be considered definitive. The Quartet however was pu blished during his life time as his opus 6. Our edition is based on the manuscript of the score and a set of hand-written parts found in the Biblioteca da Escola Nacional de Musica in Rio de Janeiro. While no notes have been changed, we have corrected errors which appeared in both.
Our edition has been carefully edited and corrected by violinist Professor Vinzeno Otto from the original manuscript located in Biblioteca da Escola Nacional de Musica in Rio de Janeiro.
Parts: $29.95
Score & Parts: $36.95
