Description

SCHUBERT – THE ‘ARPEGGIONE QUARTET’ SONATA – FOR CELLO QUARTET, or with SOLOIST (of Viola, double-bass, arpeggione etc.) and CELLO TRIO – Movement 2

3 Downloads:

SCHUBERT_Johnstone-ARPEGGIONE-Mt_2_CELLO_2_PART
SCHUBERT_Johnstone-ARPEGGIONE-Mt_2_CELLO_3_PART
SCHUBERT_Johnstone-ARPEGGIONE-Mt_2_CELLO_4_PART

The cello soloist part is not included because there are varying printed editions, each with its own idea as to which octave the cello plays – therefore use the version you are accustomed to and this chamber music version should serve every edition!

The Arpeggione (also known as the “Guitarre d’amour“) was a bowed instrument with six strings somewhat mixing together a guitar and a cello, and invented by the Viennese guitar-maker Johann Georg Stauffer (1778-1853) in probably 1823.

Schubert composed the now famous “Arpeggione” Sonata in A minor in November 1824 shortly after returning from Zseliz, where he had spent his second summer (the first one being in 1818) teaching music to the Count of Esterházy’s two daughters. By then he was a composer of full maturity. However, the arpeggione became obsolete after about 10 years, long before Schubert’s sonata was even first published in 1871. However, today the arpeggione is receiving somewhat of a revival (for example, see the notes about the dedicatee of the Johnstone ‘quartet’ version!).

The three-movement Sonata (duration almost 25 mins) must be altered somewhat if it is to be played on modern cello or viola or double bass: the arpeggione possessed six strings, tuned to the same pitches as a guitar’s, and the resulting extended range can cause problems when the piece is transcribed. Therefore in most editions, certain portions of the piece are transposed up or down an octave from their original position to avoid the extreme registers. However, Schubert by and large avoided the kind of idiosyncratic guitar-like arpeggiations that earned the original instrument its nickname, focusing instead on the same focused lyricism that drives a traditional sonata for string instrument and piano; in this way, the work readily adapts to modern performance, especially on cello.

David Johnstone has transcribed in a most original way the piano for three cellos (probably never attempted before?), above all thinking of lightly supporting the solo cello and thereby making a cello quartet chamber music work. On the whole, previous attempts at ‘orchestrating’ the work have not been entirely satisfactory, due the textures being too heavy for these delicate lines of the soloist; Johnstone is careful to keep to very transparent writing! But it works! And here is the result…enjoy the music!

This version is dedicated to the Spanish cellist VIRGINIA DEL CURA MIRANDA