„Difficulties be damned!“ – Presentation of the Ernst Krenek Edition, Volume 3
In the Ernst Krenek Edition series, volume 3 paves the way for another work by Krenek to move from an archival existence to a sounding presence on the stage. Krenek's first string quartet was in fact not his "String Quartet No. 1", with which he caused excitement at the German Tonkünstlerfest in 1921, but one composed in the year before that.
Motivated by an American composition competition, the 19-year-old Krenek wrote a short, three-movement quartet full of youthful esprit and charm, which he had given a code name complying with the competition rules: "Nec aspera terrent" ("Difficulties be damned!"). However, Krenek did not win the prize.
His erratic artistic development towards an emphatically progressive atonal style, for which he had received a lot of attention from his official first string quartet onwards, soon made him forget the small study work. It only survived as archive material in a draft in the holdings of the Wienbibliothek and a fair copy manuscript that only recently came to light. The open access publication in the Ernst Krenek Edition makes it accessible to artistic and scholarly interests, allowing the public to enjoy the early expression of Krenek's compositional mastery.
Program
Introduction
Nils Grosch, general editor and chairman of the board of the Ernst-Krenek-Institute-Private-Foundation / University of Salzburg
Clemens Zoidl, editor / Ernst-Krenek-Institute-Private-Foundation
Music
Ernst Krenek
String quartet „Nec aspera terrent“, W.o.O. 58 (1920)
Clemens Zoidl, violin
Ernst Kovacic, violin
Magdalena Eber, viola
Stefanie Prenn, violoncello
Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.
Loos-Räume der Wienbibliothek
Bartensteingasse 9/5, 1st floor
1010 Vienna
Free entry!
In cooperation with Wienbibliothek im Rathaus