Niels Gade and his string quartets

[Wieland]

Until recently I thought that Niels Gade had written 3 string quartets, they were recorded a while ago by the danish Kontra Quartet for BIS: http://www.bis.se/index.php?op=album&aID=BIS-CD-516. Recently however an early quartet showed up on a MDG recording with the Leipziger Streichquartett: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/willkommen-und-abschied-streichquartett-op-27/hnum/6217082. (If you are a fan of Kafkaesque stories you should read how their 1st violinist Stefan Arzberger got trapped in a New York court case since one year: http://www.support-for-arzberger.com/en/the-arzberger-case/).

This quartet was written in 1840 and is in so far unusual for its time, since it is carrying a lyric program in form of a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Willkommen und Abschied". Unfortunately Gade did not finish this work, so the final movement is missing and the end of the serenata scherzando had to be completed, but what is there (about 25 min) is really worth listening to. I see these three movements on the same level than the quartets of Mendelssohn and Schumann and as far as I remember they are also better then what Gade wrote later in this genre. The playing of the LSQ is as usual excellent. The second dish on this CD is Edvard Grieg's popular op. 27.

[britishcomposer]

The Kontras had also recorded the  F major in 1995 for BIS:
http://www.bis.se/index.php?op=album&aID=BIS-CD-545

[Wieland]

Thanks for pointing this out, I must have missed that one.