Johann Benjamin Gross String Quartet No.2

[matesic]

As an offshoot from the thread on Hiller's first quartet, here's a nearly contemporary piece (1837) that strikes me as preferable on most counts. Usual apologies about intonation, finger tangles etc:

http://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No.2,_Op.16_(Gross,_Johann_Benjamin)#IMSLP421036

I. Starts very Moderato, like the blandest Mozart albeit with a nice mix of phrase-lengths, but he has some surprises in store.
II. The Scherzo goes at a fair lick (I couldn't get close to the specified 100 bars to the minute), distinguished by 3-bar phrases and a furiant-like rhythm
III. Andante affettuoso, a melancholic and surprisingly weighty slow movement
IV. Allegro con Spirito - the most conventional movement, later improved by a strong dash of Mendelssohn's octet

Most of his compositions feature his own instrument, the cello, but here it assumes a conventionally modest role. IMSLP also has String Quartet No.1, Editionsilvertrust No.3, which leaves No.4 (p. Schlesinger 1845) worth tracking down.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

And certainly worth tracking down is a commercial recording of String Quartet No. 3 in F minor, Op. 37 played by the Quatuor Mosaiques on a Laboire Records disc - where it is coupled with the Cello Sonata Op. 7 and the Serenade in C minor Op. 32. I hold the Quatuor Mosaiques in high regard, but I'm aware not everyone will share that enthusiasm.

[Double-A]

Though I object strongly to the use of "bland" and "Mozart" in the same sentence:  Gross is a true discovery.  This goes well beyond "good".  Another cellist who wrote excellent quartets (like Borodin).
Listening to it I think you don't do it quite justice in your post.  The Mozartian beginning is in fact VERY Mozartian in so many details:  I hear this as a quote, not of a specific piece, but of the style--after the più animato section the movement never goes fully back to Mozart.  I am not so sure what models he would have used.  The scherzo of course is one of the many scherzi (by Onslow for example, but many other composers too) that play with hemiolas and are generally full of rhythmic trickery^*.  It is to me the most conventional of the four movements, delightful though (the tempo you play it at is just fine to my taste BTW).  The slow movement needs no praise and the last is not all that conventional either.  I hear it distinctly different from Mendelssohn; it lacks the restless kinetic energy of most fast Mendelssohn movements--including the one in the octet--and unlike Mendelssohn it has some folksy / Gipsy features; or am I wrong?
The piece is difficult to play; congratulations on your execution!
I am tempted to congratulate myself too for having inadvertently contributed to this discovery with my Hiller post.

^* Maybe this is why Mendelssohn substituted other things for scherzi in many of his works and/or came up with his very own way of writing scherzi.

[matesic]

Which of these annoying faces is it for irony? This one  seems a bit too plain - we need one that says "I don't really mean what I say, although there could be a small element of truth in it...".  I'm afraid there's some Mozart to which I would apply the adjective "bland".

Even including Haydn, there aren't many jokes in the string quartet literature. Gross's first movement seems rather a good one - a piece of classical correctness that morphs rapidly into Rossinian farce, then straight back again like it's had its face slapped. I thought to repeat the exposition would be too much like a wink and a nudge in the ribs.

[Double-A]

Well, Beethoven is often good for witty stuff.  Opus 18/6 last movement:  I hear the "malinconia" as deliberately unserious (in part because of what follows, though mileage may vary) and the fast section where the composer keeps "forgetting" which key he is supposed to be in is positively hilarious.  And what about the pianissimo ending of the scherzo in op. 74?

As to Haydn:  Too many people hear too many jokes in him, for example the quartet called "the joke" (in English only) is most definitely not a joke.

[matesic]

Beethoven didn't lose his sense of humour in the late quartets either. Moments in the adagios of Op.127 and Op.132 always make me want to laugh, although I think I'd be a lonely voice in the Wigmore Hall.

[Double-A]

Getting back to Gross:  Looking at Gross's other pieces on IMSLP I found his "Duettinos" for 2 celli (under S for small, easy duos).  Gross must have been taking his role as a cello teacher seriously.  Like other sets of pedagogic duos (Offenbach's for 2 celli or Bartok's) they are arranged by level of difficulty.  Unlike others Gross wrote the second part for the teacher.  It is considerably harder than the student's part, especially in the first few pieces.  Detailed fingerings and instructions for the student ("der dritte Finger liegt auf dem H auf der G Saite und bleibt während des ganzen Stückes liegen") are also included.

It reminds me of my brother and his friend having fun with the Offenbach duos (also available on IMSLP along with an "école de violoncelle") when we were growing up.

[Double-A]

More information on Gross:

1.  From German Wikipedia (translation mine; sorry, not by a native speaker):

Life

Johann Benjamin Groß (1809 - 1848) grew up in Elbing (nowadays Elbląg) in Ostpreußen.  His first teacher was his father, the bell ringer Georg G. Groß.  He studied cello in Berlin with the chamber musician Ferdinand Hansmann, a pupil of Jean-Pierre Duport.

He got his first job in 1824 in the orchestra of the Königstädtisches Theater near Berlin.  1830 he became First Solocellist of the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig and frequented the circles around Felix Mendelssohn, Friedrich Wieck, Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann.  In 1833 he worked for a short time in the orchestra of the theatre in Magdeburg.  His friend, the patron of the arts Baron Karl Eduard von Liphart, then called him to Dorpat (nowadys Tartu in Estonia) as a member of the "Quartettkapelle" which was directed by Ferdinand David and which was dissolved after a very productive phase in 1834.

Groß went to St. Petersburg in 1835 and became First Cellist of the court orchestra of the Czar. having the rank of an "imperial chamber musician".  The violinists Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and Henri Vieuxtemps appreciated him as a cellist in quartets. He also worked as a cello teacher and composed more than 40 works, mostly for his own instrument.

Groß was married to Catharina von Witte from Reval (nowadays Tallinn) in 1835 and had three daughters with her, one of whom died young.  He died in 1848 in St. Petersburg of cholera.

From an obituary by the Hamburg composer F.H. Thrun* (still via German Wikipedia):

JB Gross belonged to those quiet, introvert (innerliche) artists who rarely achieve great reputations in the great world but who inspire strong and lasting sympathies among the smaller circles of true artists and friends of the arts.  In his compositions, mostly belonging to the field of higher (höhere, presumably as opposed to popular or trivial) chamber music, there was a serious, poetic spirit (wehte ein ernster, poetischer Geist).  It was not easily accessible nor understandable to the great crowds, but his works will always have the respect of true connaisseurs, indeed they will acquire it in steadily increasing measure.  As a virtuoso on the cello he was lacking that demonstrative ease, that bluffing with cheap effects with which a modern traveler in the arts awes a salon public, rather his playing was like his compositions:  correct, poetic, sensible (sinnig, this word seems to me untranslatable--not just into English).  The translation is again mine, some German words and comments in brackets are an attempt to atone for its shortcomings

List of works

The list here is better than the one in Wikipedia (though in German).

Sheet music: some on IMSLP; Kammermusikverlag Kassel sells editions of the cello sonata op. 7 and the second quartet; edition Silvertrust has the third quartet as already mentioned.

The cello concerto in b-minor and the cello sonata op. 7 are available on Youtube.

CDs:  The b-minor cello concerto along with works by Julius Rietz with Klaus-Dieter Brandt, cello, Ricardo Minasi, conductor and "Arpa Festinate" which i assume is the orchestra.  Arte Production, cat# 83113.

An all-Gross CD called "Ballade Romantic" has the cello sonata op 7, the third quartet and some Lieder and smaller pieces.  Quatuor Mosaique, Yoko Kaneko, piano, Michael Dahmen, baryton, Christophe Coin, cello. From Laborie Records.  Both CDs available from Amazon.  Warning:  The second is on period instruments according to a review  on Amazon.

*: "F.H. Thrun" is most likely this guy.

[Double-A]

Being curious I have begun typesetting the first quartet to get an impression.  It is so far very favorable.  Here is a little teaser:  A section from the middle of the slow movement which is almost Brahmsian in its rhythmic organization (and anything but easy to play).  Simultaneous triplets and duplets plus syncopated crotchets plus the whole thing accelerando.  The quartet was published in 1833, the year Brahms was born.  I tried the link; it ought to work, let me know if it doesn't, please.

[Double-A]

Having finished the typeset of the first quartet I discovered that all four quartets are available from Kammermusikverlag Kassel (kammermusikverlag.de).  They (or rather he; it seems to be a one person operation) operate similar to ourtext and the Silvertrust Editions:  Facsimilia of old music (i.e. glorified photocopies, usually with handwritten corrections and sometimes rehearsal marks).  Their specialty is that for most music they also offer a typeset score (no idea why they don't produce parts as well when they do all the typesetting anyway; if produced half way decent they would be easier to read than music from the 1830s). 

Not sure if I should post my score on IMSLP now.  I don't want to contribute to driving this guy out of business.  On the other hand the parts on IMSLP (they use the same edition--probably the only one that exists) contain a rather large number of errors which would make a set of corrected parts useful (among other things an exaggerated number of courtesy accidentals--so many that they can cause confusion as to the overall key signature:  If you see an sharp in front of a c several times for no good reason you start assuming you are not in D Major when actually you are).

Anyway, people interested can get all four quartets as well as scores for number 2 - 4 from there.  Prices are not as low as at ourtext; maybe comparable to Silvertrust (20-30 Euros for a set of parts, not much less for a score).

P.S.  I do think there is a lot to like in this quartet as well.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Having gone to all that trouble, I think you should certainly post the parts.

[matesic]

A very good point about the courtesy accidentals. When I come across a part in which someone has "helpfully" added a few as an aide memoire I start by rubbing them all out again. I haven't come across this problem in an old printed edition though.

I'm sure correcting historical errors is justification enough for uploading your transcription without worrying that you're trespassing one somebody else's patch, but are you absolutely sure you haven't introduced a few more errors of your own?! I thought my own last effort (SQ No.9 by J.B.McEwen) was straightforward enough and that I'd detected most of my mistakes by playing back the Printmusic file, but on multitracking the piece I was still discovering them (including one horror - several bars of cello in the wrong clef) second time through. I'm happy to act as test pilot if you'd like to email me the parts (steve@sandrock.fslife.co.uk).

[Double-A]

Give me a few days for finalizing the parts and putting them into Pdf format and I'll be very happy to take you up on your offer!  I alway proof read the score measure by measure and voice by voice as well as listen to playback (slowly if necessary).  But at the end there are usually still some accidentals missing or pitches incorrect or even a few notes missing.   Errors in rhythm are practically always prevented by the software. 

As to the overabundant courtesy accidentals I also found them in the Hiller quartets (from about the same time).

[chill319]

Regarding 'courtesy accidentals' I can aver, ruefully, that they likely signal the presence of a (relatively) inexperienced editor. That said, it's important to distinguish these from editorial accidentals added due to the common 19th-c. practice of letting an accidental in one octave imply the same accidental in all octaves on that staff or even system.

[Double-A]

I know.  This particular edition (the only one in existence I believe) is from 1830 and I correct that routinely when working with 19th century editions (or manuscripts).

But lately I have come across music from those years with way too many courtesy accidentals several times.  I wonder whether 19th century musicians anticipated accidentals based on the harmonic situation they were in and some editors and/or composers tried to warn them of surprises where their intuition / erudition might lead them astray.  Since rehearsing was definitely not taken as seriously then as nowadays this may make some sense.  But it is confusing to the modern player who goes by the written text above all else.