String Quartet No. 4

Full title String Quartet No. 4 in D Minor / 4. Streichquartett D-moll
Date composed 1924
Details Heftig, doch nicht zu rasch (Allegro)
Allegretto
Requiem für Eva—Sehr langsam (Adagio)
Allegro appassionato

Composition completed in December 1924. Movement 3, “Requiem für Eva,” which Weigl intended be performable as a freestanding work, was the first movement to be conceived and completed, on 22 January 1923; the other three movements were not composed until the fall of 1924 (see below).
Performance duration: ca. 28 min.
Manuscript sources NYPL JOB 73-154, holograph score (36 pages), with composer's note on title page: Wien, Dezember 1924. Dates of completion are also noted at the conclusion of each of the four movements; after movement 1: 28./X. 1924; after movement 2: 18./XI. 1924; after movement 3 (which is written on different paper and with different ink from those used for the other movements): 22./I. 1923; and after movement 4: 11./XII. 1924. See also NYPL JPB 99-7 no. 101, a photocopy of a copyist's score (37 pages).
Publication details The work was not published during Weigl's lifetime. Today the publisher of record is ACA.
Availabiity Score and parts available from ACA and KWF.
Recordings Akadémia Kvartett (2-CD set: KWF991001, 1999; available from KWF).
Listen

String Quartet No. 4: movement 3, Adagio
Akadémia Kwartett

Performances (click icon to expand or collapse list)
14 January 1929*** Berlin, Bachsaal, Österreichischer Komponistenbund concert of Austrian music: Maurits van den Berg, Charlotte Rosen, Lorenz Höber, and Ewel Stegmann [last-minute change from the previously announced Havemann Quartett (Gustav Havemann, Georg Kinestädt, Hans Mahlke, Adolf Steiner)]. Also on program: Hans Gál, Orgeltoccata op. 29; Egon Wellesz, Suite for cello; Wilhelm Grosz, Liebeslieder; Josef Matthias Hauer, Fünf Kammerstücke für Streichquartett, Klavier und Harmonium.
16 November 1931 Vienna, private musicale Zur Weihe des Hauses Schmitz [Fritzi Schmitz]: string quartet (Franz Alt, Fritz Alt, Felix Buonaventura, Bernhard Antscherl).
3 April 1936 Vienna, Großer Ehrbarsaal: Rothschild Quartet (Fritz Rothschild, Armin Kaufmann, A. Kreiner, Hans Czegka). Also on program: Franz Schmidt, Piano Quintet (with Paul Wittgenstein, piano); Beethoven, String Quartet op. 59 no. 2.
2 October 1999 Budapest, Benczúr Ház, The Music of Karl Weigl Memorial Concerts, concert 1: Three Songs op. 12 nos. 2 and 3, Love Songs op. 22 nos. 3 and 4, and Love Song (Evelyn Chih-Yih Chan and Bárkányi Eva); Two Pieces for cello op. 33 (Maróth Balint and Bárkányi Eva); Five Duets for soprano and baritone (Evelyn Chih-Yih Cha, Michael Kutner and Bárkányi Eva); String Quartet No. 4 (Akadémia Quartet [Környei Zsófia, Bodó Antónia, Móré László, Maróth Bálint)].