Louis Spohr (1784–1859)
Double Quartets Nos. 1 and 2
Louis Spohr was ranked as one of the great composers for
much of the nineteenth century. He was born in the
German city of Brunswick (Braunschweig) on 5 April
1784 and went on to win an enormous reputation as
composer, violin virtuoso, conductor and teacher, holding
major posts in Gotha (1805–12), Vienna (1813–15) where
he became friendly with Beethoven, Frankfurt (1817–19)
and finally Kassel (1822–57), where he died on 22
October 1859. He also undertook numerous concert tours
with his first wife, the harp virtuoso Dorette Scheidler
(1787–1834), most notably to Italy (1816–17), England
(1820) and Paris (1821). In later years Spohr reduced the
number of his public violin performances but his renown
as a conductor led to many invitations to take charge of
music festivals, including the inauguration of the
Beethoven Monument in Bonn in 1845 as well as further
visits to England in 1839, 1843, 1847, 1852 and 1853.
Spohr’s conducting repertoire was wide-ranging; apart
from his own works and Handel, Haydn and Mozart, it
took in Beethoven’s symphonies, including the Ninth, the
concertos, Fidelio and the Missa Solemnis, Wagner’s Flying
Dutchman and Tannhäuser, Schumann’s Spring Symphony
and various pieces by Schubert, Berlioz and Liszt. He also
took a leading part in the revival of Bach’s masterpices
such as the St Matthew Passion, with performances in 1832
(without orchestra because of opposition from the Kassel
court), 1833, 1834, 1845 and 1851. His compositions
covered all the major genres of his era with ten operas,
four oratorios, ten symphonies, 28 concertos, much
chamber music and nearly a hundred Lieder.
Despite Spohr’s busy career as violin virtuoso and
conductor, he was involved in chamber music throughout
his life, not only as a composer but also as a performer and
concert organizer. He is credited with pioneering the
standard programme of quartets by Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven in a single recital as well as putting on the first
public chamber music concerts in Frankfurt in 1818. Later,
during his time in Kassel, he held weekly winter quartet parties from 1822 until 1858, the year before his death.
Spohr’s chamber music for string ensemble amounts to
48 compositions, made up of 36 quartets, seven quintets,
a sextet and four double quartets, written for the same
eight instruments as Mendelssohn’s popular Octet. These
double quartets, however, are unique in the chamber music
repertory for, as Spohr himself made clear, ‘Mendelssohn’s
Octet belongs to quite another kind of art in which
the two quartets do not concert and interchange in double
choir with each other but all eight instruments work
together.’
Spohr credited the violinist-composer Andreas
Romberg (1767–1821) with suggesting the idea of a
composition for double quartet ‘when we played a quartet
together for the last time before his death’. Spohr set to
work on his First Double Quartet in D minor, Op. 65, in
March 1823 and completed it the following month: ‘I
imagined how two quartet groups sitting close to each
other should be made to play one piece of music and keep
in reserve the eight-voice combination for the chief parts
of the composition only. I was greatly impressed to find
that its effect was far greater than that of simple quartets
or quintets’.
The presence of the complete octet is immediately
announced by the powerful unison opening of the Allegro,
then the second quartet begins the continuation one bar
before the first quartet joins in. This opening theme bears
a superficial resemblance to the start of the Haffner
Symphony, K.385, by Spohr’s great hero Mozart, but the
chromaticism Spohr uses has its roots in another Mozart
opening, the E flat String Quartet, K.428. Spohr’s second
subject takes a leaf out of Haydn’s book by being a more
lyrical version of the main theme. Elements of this theme
underpin a section of passage-work by the first quartet on
the way to the extensive development section.
The main subject of the G minor Scherzo swings
between a staccato-motif and a legato phrase, then comes
a serenade-like Trio in G major in which the first violin and cello of the first quartet share the melody while the
second quartet has an accompanying rôle. The short
Larghetto in B flat major is a simple ‘song without words’
and acts almost as an introduction to the lively D major
finale. Here the perky main theme, launched by the first
quartet’s cello, is answered by an imitation of brass chords
in the second quartet. This comes to the fore in the
development where it remains the sole preserve of the
second quartet. Textbook sonata-form is varied as the
second subject starts the recapitulation and there is a brief
reference to the ‘brass chords’ before the race to the
finishing line.
This first double quartet proved immensely successful
and the Second Double Quartet in E flat major, Op. 77,
followed in December 1827. Spohr later composed a third,
in E minor, Op. 87, in December 1832–January 1833
and the fourth and final double quartet (G minor, Op. 136)
dates from April–May 1847.
The Second Double Quartet has four well-contrasted
movements with the lyrical opening once again fashioning
a second subject which is an altered version of the first
theme. As in the First Double Quartet, this one begins in
unison but pianissimo and restricted to the first quartet.
The English composer Harold Truscott (1914–1992)
praised Spohr’s use of chromaticism during the build-up
to the second subject through ‘the magical divergence on
to B major harmony […] just as the music is busily
preparing for a second subject in C minor. The B major
proves to be the tonic “Neapolitan” sixth of B flat major,
the normal key at this point, but Spohr’s masterly use of
this chromatic harmony for six bars has made the normal
sound much stranger than if he had made use here of
something really unusual.’ He added that the return to the
recapitulation was ‘the most necessary thing at that
moment. This is classical structure as the greatest masters
understood it.’
The march-like C minor Minuet, a speciality of Spohr’s,
has a menacing tread and makes a feature of exchanges between the two quartets, then gives way to a completely
contrasting Trio in A flat major, in fact a miniature
serenade bringing forward the first violin and viola of the
first quartet. Here, in contrast to the minuet proper, the
second quartet steps into the background. After the repeat
of the minuet, there is a lengthy and poetic coda.
The main theme of the attractive A flat major Larghetto
con moto is warmly expressive and the movement includes
some tricky moments to be negotiated by the second
quartet which involves off-beat demisemiquavers on the
two violins and having to slot in with pizzicato semiquavers
on the viola and cello. The work is rounded off
with a tunefully catchy Allegretto finale which comes
close to foreshadowing the Bohemian foot-tapping appeal
of Dvořák. Here the second quartet sets up the rhythmic
pattern which dominates the movement while the first
quartet takes the melodic lead.
It is fascinating to follow Spohr’s progress through his
four double quartets and to notice how he brought the
second quartet more and more into equal balance with the
first. To start with, in 1823, he had to rely on pupils and
orchestra members to form his second quartet and so was
understandably wary of giving them too exposed a rôle,
whereas in the first quartet he took the first violin part
himself supported by the members of his regular quartet
ensemble, which included the star cellist Nikolaus Hasemann.
Later, as his tuition began to improve the quality of
string players available to him, he felt able to do more
with the second quartet. Prime examples can be heard in
the exchanges between the quartets in the minuet of the
Second Double Quartet and the tricky accompanying part
for the second quartet in the same work’s slow movement.
Keith Warsop
Chairman, Spohr Society of Great Britain
If you are interested in the Spohr Society contact The
Secretary, 123 Mount View Road, Sheffield S8 8PJ, UK or
e-mail: chtutt@yahoo.co.uk.
www.spohr-society.org.uk
