String Quartet in D minor (Sibelius)

The String Quartet in D minor, Voces intimae, Op. 56, is a five-movement chamber piece for two violins, viola, and cello written in 1909 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It is the only major work for string quartet of his mature period.

History

As a student, Sibelius composed several works for string quartet. In 1885 he finished the String Quartet in E-flat major, followed in 1889, after quite a few individual movements for this combination, by the String Quartet in A minor. The first string quartet to receive an opus number was in 1890: the String Quartet in B-flat major. Afterwards he wrote no string quartets until Voces intimae in 1909. Composed between his Third and Fourth Symphony, it remained "the only major work for string quartet of Sibelius's mature period".
Sibelius composed the quartet from December 1908, working on it in London in early 1909. The Latin title, translating to "Intimate Voices" or "Inner voices", marks a "conversational quality" and "inwardness" of the music. The composer wrote about his work in a letter to his wife: "It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. I will say no more." Sibelius showed it to his publisher Robert Lienau on 15 April 1909.
The first performance was on 25 April 1910 at the Helsinki Music Institute. A review in the Helsingin Sanomat noted: "The composition attracted a great deal of attention, and it is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant products in its field. It is not a composition for the public at large, it is so eccentric and out of the ordinary." Sibelius later wrote about the composition: "The melodic material is good but the harmonic material could be 'lighter', and even 'more like a quartet.'"

Structure and music

Sibelius structured the quartet in five movements:
The work opens with a dialogue of violin and cello. The first movement contrasts "murmurous figuration with firm chords". The second movement is a scherzo in A major, connected to the first by musical motifs. The central slow movement has been described as a "soulful quest for serenity in F major". It contains "three detached, soft chords in E minor, remote from any of the previous harmonic implications", to which Sibelius added the "voces intimae" in a friend's score. A second scherzo is also connected by motivic similarity to the first movement. The finale, "with more than a hint of folk fiddling", grows in intensity by markings from Allegro to "sempre più energico", described as "fiercely accented music of forceful contrasts but irresistible momentum".

Arrangements

The Finnish violinist and composer Pekka Kuusisto has arranged the work for chamber orchestra, which was included in Kuusisto's 2009 Australian tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Discography

The Budapest String Quartet made the world premiere studio recording of the String Quartet in D minor on 8 August 1933, which appeared on Volume 3 of HVM's The Sibelius Society series.

	Quartet	Violin I	Violin II	Viola	Cello	Runtime		Recording venue	Label
1	Budapest					26:56	1933	Beethovensaal,	Warner Classics
2	Griller					36:03	1950	Decca Studios	Decca
3	Budapest					28:22	1955	Coolidge Auditorium	Urania
4	Smetana					29:31	1956	, Helsinki	Ina
5	Pascal					32:23		?	First Hand
6	Borodin					?		?	Melodiya
7	Claremont					27:37		?	Nonesuch
8	Lansdowne					?		?	His Master's Voice
9						?	1970	Finnvox Studios	His Master's Voice
10						31:04	1974	Vik Castle	BIS
11	Copenhagen					32:28		?	Turnabout
12	Fitzwilliam					32:57	1978	Snape Maltings Concert Hall	Decca
13	Sibelius Academy					28:14	1980	Sibelius Academy Concert Hall	Finlandia
14	Guarneri					28:47	1989	, New York	Philips
15	Gabrieli					34:13	1989	Snape Maltings Concert Hall	Chandos
16						30:10	1989	Studio 2, Swedish Radio
17	Sophisticated Ladies					29:41	1989		BIS
18	Juilliard					30:45	1990	Coolidge Auditorium	Sony Classical
19	Jean Sibelius					30:11	1991		Ondine
20	Wilanow						1991	Studio 2, Polish Radio	Accord
21	New Helsinki					33:22	1997	, Turku	Finlandia
22	Melos					30:38	1998		Harmonia Mundi
23	Beau					?		?	Arktos Recordings
24	Utrecht					29:28	2001	, Renswoude	Cobra
25	Oslo					32:25	2002		cpo
26						29:48	2004		BIS
27	Emerson					27:56	2004	American Academy of Arts and Letters	Deutsche Grammophon
28	Daedalus					28:56		?	Bridge
29	Coull					31:49	2008	St Paul's Church, Birmingham	SOMM
30	Henschel					30:51	2008	August Everding Hall, Grünwald	Neos
31	Kocian					29:26	2009	Domovina Studio, Prague	Praga Digitals
32	Tetzlaff					29:55	2009		Avi-Music
33	Vertavo					30:52	2010
34	Dante					31:01	2010	Potton Hall, Suffolk	Hyperion
35	Kamus					30:07	2014	Schauman Hall, Pietersaari
36	Skyros					32:14	2014	Engel Hall, Union Adventist University	Navona
37						28:37	2015	Bryn Church	BIS
38	Flinders					29:39	2015	Wyselaskie Auditorium, Parkville	ABC Classics
39	Ehnes					31:38	2015	Potton Hall, Suffolk	Onyx Classics
40	Leipzig					31:21	2016	Marienmünster Abbey	MDG
41	Aizuri					29:39	2022	Sauder Concert Hall, Goshen College	Azica

Literature

Beat Föllmi : Das Streichquartett in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, Verlag Hans Schneider, Tutzing 2004
Tomi Mäkelä: Jean Sibelius und seine Zeit, Laaber-Verlag, Regensburg 2013
Ulrich Wilker: "Ein fernes Murmeln aus einer fernen Welt". Zu Jean Sibelius’ Streichquartett "Voces intimae" d-Moll op. 56, in: Stefan Börnchen/Claudia Liebrand : Lauschen und Überhören. Literarische und mediale Aspekte auditiver Offenheit, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Paderborn 2020, p.193–211