One of the Eybler Quartet’s reasons for existing is to give voice to lesser-known composers from the 18th and 19th centuries. We have often asked ourselves the somewhat rhetorical question “who will speak for Asplmayr?!” Much of the music we’ve performed and recorded has not been heard in living memory – which is why we sometimes call those performances and recordings “premieres”.
As part of the Evolution:Quartet summer program at Banff, we share concerts with the other two faculty quartets, the fantastic Parker Quartet and the astonishing JACK Quartet. Some years ago, after a concert that featured the Eyblers playing early quartets by Franz Asplmayr and Johann Baptist Vanhal, the Parkers playing Leoš Janáček’s 2nd String Quartet and the JACK playing Iannis Xenakis’ Tetras, Austin Wulliman, one of the violinists in JACK remarked “Everyone’s heard Janáček and Tetras – you guys are playing the real new music!”
Putting aside the philosophical question of what’s “new” vs. what’s “novel”, the Eyblers’ process for finding unfamiliar repertoire follows several different routes. Sometimes one of us will have heard an unfamiliar composer and wonder if they happened to write some chamber music. Sometimes a name just keeps coming up in different contexts and curiosity is sparked. Regardless of where the idea comes from, the detective work usually falls to me since I almost certainly spend more time than is healthy rummaging around in the dustbin of history. The explosion of digital resources available in the last fifteen years has made that detective work considerably easier and faster.
Occasionally, we are approached with a repertoire idea by an audience member or “concerned listener” as I sometimes think of them. Last spring, I got an email from Dr. Mark Ferraguto, Associate Professor of Music at Penn State University asking if the group might have an interest in what he called “the other Razumovsky quartets.” My interest was immediately piqued. Of course, the “famous” Razumovsky quartets are the three works of Op. 59 by Beethoven, dedicated to Count Andrey Razumovsky. Mark was at that point in the late stages of preparing a modern scholarly edition of two string quartets by Beethoven's contemporary Franz Weiss (1778–1830). Weiss was a virtuoso violist and member of the Ignaz Schuppanzigh’s quartet, the ensemble that premiered many of Beethoven’s string quartets. (Nerd alert – when I read Franz Weiss’ name I immediately wondered if he was talking about the violist in Schuppanzigh’s quartet – Mark had written to the right person, it would seem.)
Step one for us was to read through the pieces. I must sadly report that the percentage of works that we read that actually make the cut to be performed or recorded is not particularly high. Sometimes they’re just not all that interesting, sometimes they’re perfectly interesting but overlong for the musical ideas. In any event, taking on a new work or set of works represents a considerable investment of the Eybler Quartet’s limited time and energy, so we have to be picky! Weiss’ pieces are quite extraordinary in several respects and they are officially on the list!
-Patrick Jordan