Leander Schlegel - Piano Quartet, Op. 14

Composer: Leander Schlegel (2 februari 1844 -- 20 oktober 1913)
Perfomers: John Bingham (piano), Elisabeth Perry (violin), Prunella Pacey (viola), Dmitri Ferschtman (cello)
Year of recording: 1992

Piano Quartet in C major, Op. 14, written in 1886.

00:00 - I. Allegro moderato
12:20 - II. Allegretto piacevole con moto
17:05 - III. Sarabanda (Andante, ma molto sostenuto)
24:53 - IV. Finale (Allegro brioso, più tosto moderato, ma risoluto)

The Dutch composer Schlegel kept well abreast of the latest developments in German music and explored these increasingly in his own compositions. In Vienna he was held to be "The New Brahms". The Brahms adept and critic of the 'Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung' Max Kalbeck, described Schlegel's style as "to the left of Brahms", a term that was also applied to the new music of Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. In his lieder (op. 21, 22, 24 and 28), Schlegel was at his most progressive and he was ascribed in these to having some relationship with the radical music of Schoenberg and his students. The far-reaching chromaticism of the 2nd Viennese School and the fundamental changes in the cultural climate as a consequence of the First World War could well have been responsible for the sudden decline of interest in Schlegel's music after 1914.

The Piano Quartet is very romantic in nature, but very individual as well. Even in the very first bars, the work stands out for the intimate atmosphere in which it opens. It becomes immediately clear that Schlegel has no intention of winning over the listener with an imposing show of instrumental might, like so many pieces of the time. The 'comfortable' path is uncompromisingly avoided up to and including the very last movement.
Willem Andriessen (uncle of the famous Dutch composer Louis Andriessen) wrote about the piece: "Any concession to the wishes of a superficial audience is out of the question here. His art reflects solely the inner being of the man, who upheld an equally aristocratic view of life in his conversation as that which typifies his work".

The piano quartet seemed to have passed into obscurity, even though during his lifetime it was the most successful of his chamber music pieces. It was performed for the first time in Haarlem, The Netherlands in 1886. Violinist Adolph Brodsky made an arrangement of it a few years later. After this, little was heard of the work until it appeared on the programme of a concert in Bielefeld. Following its performance at the "Kompositions-Matinée Lander Schlegels" in 1912 at the Bösendorfer-Saal in Vienna, the Viennese "Schlegelwelle"[Schlegel-wave] collapsed once again.

All in all, this piano quartet stands out as one of the best chamber works from the Dutch romantic music era.

The piece is dedicated: "Ihrer Durchlaucht Prinzessin Hermann zu Solms-Braunfels, geborene Prinzessin Reuß, jüngerer Linie, gewidmet".