Antonín Dvořák's
String Quintet No. 2 in
G major
G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...
,
Op. 77 (
B. 49), was originally composed in early March 1875 and first performed on 18 March 1876 in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
at the concert of the ''
Umělecká beseda''.
It is scored for two
violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
s,
viola
The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...
,
cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
, and
double bass
The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
. First marked as Op. 18, it was later slightly revised in 1888 as Op. 77. It has since been assigned the
Burghauser number B. 49. Dvořák entered the piece in a competition and was awarded 5
ducat
The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...
s for the composition. The work bears the competition's motto, "To my Nation", as its dedication.
Although the original work was scored in five movements, Dvořák later withdrew the second movement, entitled "Intermezzo," due to concerns that having two slow movements made the work too lengthy. This extracted movement had been based on the central section, marked 'Andante religioso', of his
String Quartet No. 4 (which was not published in his lifetime), and was in turn later reworked and republished as the
Nocturne for Strings in B major, Op. 40 (B. 47). Some modern ensembles choose to restore the intermezzo when performing the work.
The work was published in 1888 by
Simrock, not under its original opus number 18, but as Opus 77.
Structure
The quintet consists of four
movements:
Selected recordings
*''String Quintet No. 2, String Sextet''. CD Supraphon (11 1461-2 131).
*''The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Dvorak Serenade.'' Perf. Joseph Silverstein,
Ani Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Gary Hoffman, Edgar Meyer. CD. Delos, 1995.
References
*
*
External links
*
String Quintet No. 2 on a comprehensive Dvorak sitePerformance of String Quintet No. 2
by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format
String quintets by Antonín Dvořák
1875 compositions
Compositions in G major
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