Three Songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet
Full title | Three Songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet / Drei Gesänge für Mezzosopran und Streichquartett | |
Date composed | 1937 | |
Details |
1. O Grille sing / O Cricket Sing (Max Dauthendey; English translation by Lydia Perera and Vally Weigl); vocal range: a–f#'' 2. Fluch den Augen / Woe to Eyes (Riccarda Huch; English translation by Lydia Perera and Vally Weigl); vocal range: a–f#'' 3. O süßes Dunkel himmelweit / Oh Blessed Darkness (Rudolf List; English translation by Lydia Perera and Vally Weigl); vocal range: b–g#' Composition completed June 1937. |
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Manuscript sources | NYPL JOB 73-15, holograph working score (4 folded folios), with composer's note on title page: Wien, im Juni 1937, and a completion date at the end of each song; for O Grille sing, 10./VI. 1937; for Fluch den Augen, 8./VI. 1937; and for O süßes Dunkel, 4./VI. 1937. See also NYPL JPB 99-7 no. 16, bound reproduction of a holograph fair score (location of original is not known; 16 numbered pages), with English title and texts added in a different hand; NYPL JPB 99-7 no. 17, Composers Facsimile Edition, reproduction of the same holograph score (13 numbered and some unnumbered pages); and NYPL JPB 99-7 no. 18, Composers Facsimile Edition, reproduction of holograph piano-vocal score (15 numbered pages). | |
Availabiity | Score, parts, and piano reduction available from ACA and KWF. | |
Recordings | Alice Howard and Woodstock Quartet (LP: Triad TRI 1, 1955). | |
Listen |
Three Songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet: no. 1, O Grille sing / O Cricket Sing |
18 December 1937*** | Vienna: Nanni Annibali, mezzo-soprano; Weiss Quartet (Lily Weiss, Lotte Selka, Edith Steinbauer, Frida Krause). Also on program: works by Praetorius; Rosenmüller; Bach; Händel; Hofhaimer; Lemlin; Senfl; Gál; Walter Klein; Kodaly; Caldara; Mozart; Beethoven. |
22 November 1938 | New York, private musicale, home of Miss Henriette Michelson, Chamber Music Evening, Compositions by Karl Weigl: Alice Howland, soprano; string quartet (Felix Galimir, Kurt Frederick, Lotte Hammerschlag, and Vally Gara). |
12 February 1988 | Cambridge, Massachusetts, Blodgett Chamber Music Series at Harvard, Compositions by Karl Weigl: String Quartet No. 3 (New World String Quartet [Curtis Macomber, Vahn Armstrong, Robert Dan, Ross Harbaugh]). Three Songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet (Hilda Harris and New World String Quartet), Five Songs for soprano and string quartet (Nancy Armstrong and New World String Quartet), and String Quartet No. 5. |
13 April 2008 | London, Cadogan Hall, Music in Exile festival, concert 4: Phillida Bannister, contralto; members of the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble (Stephanie Gonley, Annabelle Meare, Jonathan Barritt, Caroline Dale). Also on program: Mikløs Røzsa, Three Songs; Erich Korngold, “Sonett für Wien” op. 41; Marc Neikrug, Through Roses. |
5 October 2015 | Schiermonnikoog, Netherlands, International Schiermonnikoog Music Festival: Three Songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet, performed by Marie-Paule Milone and the Malibran Quartet (Tatiana Samouil, Aki Saulière, Tony Nys, and Justus Grimm). Also on the progam: Weigl, Five Songs for soprano and string quartet, with Renate Arends and the Malibran Quartet; Strauss, Capriccio op. 85; and Schubert, String Quintet, D. 956. |