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.
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
Alice Howland and Woodstock Quartet

Performances (click icon to expand or collapse list)
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.