This chamber music work, composed in 1907/08, marks a turning point not only in Schönberg’s output, but also for the history of modern music in general. Major-minor tonality, obligatory for centuries, is increasingly abandoned over the four movements in favour of a free atonality. This break with music-historical tradition goes hand-in-hand with a further breach of convention; in the last two movements, Schönberg includes a solo soprano singing settings of two poems by Stefan George. With the transition to atonality, Schönberg opens the way to a new musical language which was to lead to twelve-tone music a little later. Without question, his second String Quartet represents a landmark in the history of music. The new Henle edition is edited by Schönberg specialist Ullrich Scheideler reflecting the latest state of research. The Henle Urtext edition publishes this modern classic in a new, generously laid out music setting.
Read more about this edition in the Henle Blog.
Content/Details
- String Quartet no. 2 op. 10
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Preface
The 2nd String Quartet op. 10 of Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951), dating from 1907/08, is regarded today as among those works that led to a fundamental turn in the history of music. Its final movement is particularly important in this assessment, since it no longer carries a key signature and abandons major-minor tonality. What soon came to be known by the term atonality … more
Critical Commentary
About the authors
Jan Philip Schulze (Piano reduction)
Prof. Jan Philip Schulze received his piano education at the Musikhochschule in Munich and at the Tschaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. He began his varied international career by winning awards at competitions in Italy, Spain and South Africa.
As a lied accompanist he has regularly given concerts with Juliane Banse, Annette Dasch, Rachel Harnisch, Dietrich Henschel, Jonas Kaufmann and Violeta Urmana; performing in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the London Wigmore Hall, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, in Tokyo, at La Scala in Milan, as well as at the festivals in Lucerne, Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich and Schwarzenberg. Schulze is also interested in contemporary music, and has, for example recorded all of Hans Werner Henze’s Works for Piano, as well as given premières of concertos by Christoph Staude (with the Munich Philharmonic), Dror Feiler (with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) and Johannes Schöllhorn (with the WDR Symphony Orchestra). Since 2004, Jan Philip Schulze has been Professor for “Liedgestaltung” at the Music Conservatory in Hannover.