Schmid: Kleines Hauskonzert - Volume 12

Description

• I. Statz for String Quartet
• II. Invention for Klavier
• III. Kleines Lied : Rote Äuglein for Sopran, Viola, and Cello
• IV. Stück for Cello and Klavier (Nanchstück)
• V. Invention II for Klavier
• VI. Canon cancricans sopra B.A.C.H. for String Quartet
• VII. Invention III for Klavier
• VIII. Stück for Geige and Klavier
• IX. Stück for Bratsche Klavier
• X Leid for Sopran and Klavier
• XI. Invention IV for Klavier
• XII. Variation for Streitchquartett

Text from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn."

Erich Schmid (1907 - 2000) was an orchestra conductor, choir director and university lecturer who promoted world premieres and radio broadcasts of contemporary music in Switzerland. He himself studied with Bernhard Sekles, among others, then with Arnold Schönberg and followed the aesthetics of the New Viennese School in his compositions. The historical-critical Erich Schmid Edition publishes for the first time all sixteen opus-numbered works as well as three additional piano works.

The playfully inventive cycle for voice, piano and string quartet, dedicated to his "dear wife" Martha, brings together short compositions written in 1937-40. "These are," says Schmid, "12 small pieces in a wide variety of instrumentation and different forms - some of them twelve-tone pieces, some of them in a technique that comes close. An attempt to write music that is technically easier to perform." The arch-like overall form combines folksong-like vocal numbers on text from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" with solo pieces, quartet movements and counterpoint art on the name of "BACH" and expresses Schmid's view of music in a subtly personal way.