In today’s episode, we stick for a while to the works of Friedrich Gernsheim and so you can listen to his String Quartet No. 3 in F major, opus 51 from 1886. In the second half of the nineteenth century, this work was considered to be a great chamber music piece, comprehensive and with a profound feeling; a string quartet in the tradition of Beethoven and Brahms.
In addition, we play music of Jan Levoslav Bella, who was born in a small Slowakian town called Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus (near Bratislava). Bella’s conscise String Quartet No. 4 in B flat major from 1887 sounds for the most part conservative and has some references to the traditional music. Yet, his music has some peculiar, unpolished moments containing remarkable harmonious changes opposite elegant variations, more suited to the late 18th century than the late 19th century. It is not without a reason, that Bella’s String Quartet No. 2 in E minor from 1871 was also called ‘Hungarian’. The finale of this work (Largo – Con moto – Allegro maestoso) clearly shows why.
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