Edvard Grieg; Amanda Maier; Julius Röntgen - String Quartets (Zilliacus Quartet)

Information

Composer: Edvard Grieg; Amanda Maier; Julius Röntgen

• Grieg - String Quartet No. 2 in F Major
• Maier - String Quartet in A Major
• Röntgen - String Quartet No. 12 in G-Sharp Minor

Zilliacus Quartet

Cecilia Zilliacus & Julia-Maria Kretz, violins

Ylvali McTigert Zilliacus, viola

Kati Raitinen, cello

Date: 2023

Label: dB Productions

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Review

This is a fascinating release of interconnected composers. Edvard Grieg was a close family friend of the Rontgens — Julius and his wife Amanda Maier. Rontgen would eventually publish a biography of his friend in 1930. And he did more than that.

Grieg had started a string quartet in 1891 and set it aside. He had completed only the first two movements. Rontgen. Rontgen composed two final movements based on Grieg’s notes and sketches. 

The completed quartet was performed in the Rontgen home with an all-star lineup. Harold Bauer played the first violin. Pablo Casals played the second violin and his wife played the cello. Julius Rontgen played the viola. His second wife, Abrahamina, was the sole audience member. 

The Grieg/Rontgen quartet was then put aside. It receives its world recording premiere here.

Rontgen’s first wife, Amanda Maier was an accomplished violinist and a skilled composer. Her early death at age 41 left her own string quartet unfinished. It would remain so until 2018.  That’s when Swedish conductor and composer Bengt Tommy Andersson completed it.

Rounding out the release is Rontgen’s own work, his String Quartet No. 12.

Violinist Cecilia Zilliacus has recorded several of Maier’s works. And she’s specialized in Scandinavian string music. She has a deep understanding of this music.

And that understanding comes through in this recording. The Zilliacus Quartet has a warm, clear ensemble sound. They bring out the emotional content of this music, but never to excess. 

Instead, we’re treated to some exciting, well-executed quartet playing. And that playing breathes life into these works. The origins of the music don’t matter. The Grieg/Rontgen and Maier/Andersson quartets sound like seamless and organic masterpieces.

-- WTJU

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Edvard Grieg (15 June 1843, Bergen – 4 September 1907, Bergen) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions put the music of Norway in the international spectrum, as well as helping to develop a national identity, like Sibelius and Dvořák for their own countries. He is the most celebrated person from the city of Bergen, with numerous statues depicting his image, and many cultural entities named after him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Grieg

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Amanda Maier (20 February 1853 – 15 July 1894) was a Swedish violinist and composer. She was the first female graduate in music direction from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1872. Maier continued to study composition in Leipzig, where she met German-Dutch pianist and composer Julius Röntgen, her future husband. The couple married in 1880, a marriage that ended Amanda's public appearances, but she continued composing, and the couple arranged musical salons and performances in Europe. In 1887 Maier became ill with tuberculosis. Her final major composition was the piano quartet (1891).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Maier

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Julius Röntgen (9 May 1855 – 13 September 1932) was a German-Dutch composer of classical music. Born a gifted child in Leipzig, Röntgen's first piano teacher was Carl Reinecke. He move to Amsterdam in 1877, and became a naturalized Dutch citizen in 1919. Röntgen's works include 25 symphonies, concertos (7 piano concertos, 3 violin concertos, 3 cello concertos, other concertos), as well as numerous chamber, piano and vocal works. He also completed Grieg's unfinished String Quartet No. 2. Röntgen also harmonized and arranged traditional Dutch melodies used as hymn tunes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Röntgen

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