Concert

String quartets by Ernst Tschiderer and Robert Schumann

On the verge of a career in law, the Tyrolean Ernst Baron von Tschiderer (1830-1916) decided at the age of 24 to devote himself entirely to his true passion, music. He studied with František Zdeňek Skuherský at the Innsbruck Musikverein and with Felix Otto Dessoff at the Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. He worked as a freelance composer until his death and left behind an extensive musical oeuvre. His musical legacy is preserved in the Ferdinandeum’s music collection. Among Tschiderer’s most important compositions are his three string quartets. The last is dedicated to Jean Becker (1833-1884), the principal violinist of the renowned Florentine Quartet, which included Tschiderer’s works in its repertoire. We juxtapose Tschiderer’s work with Robert Schumann’s String Quartet No. 3. This composition by the great German Romantic composer from the “chamber music year” 1842 is part of a gift for Clara Schumann’s 23rd birthday, while the printed edition from 1847 is dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Robert Schumann considered this work, which was not premièred until 1848 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, to be one of his most successful.

CEDAG Quartet
Martin Yavryan (violin 1)
Clemens Gahl (violin 2)
Ernst Theuerkauf (viola)
Peter Polzer (violoncello)