String Quartet No. 2 (Bloch)

The String Quartet No. 2 by Ernest Bloch was composed between 1940 and 1945. The quartet averages 34 minutes to perform. Bloch wrote it following a close study of Beethoven’s sketches for the Eroica symphony.[1]

After its premiere, Ernest Newman called the String Quartet No. 2 "the finest work of our time in this genre, one that is worthy to stand beside the last quartets of Beethoven".[2] The composer himself called it "dry, not easy to listen to … and I doubt it will be liked".[3]

Today it is typically regarded as the finest of Bloch's five quartets.[1] Only in the second quartet did Bloch find a synthesis between formal sonata form structure and his "fundamentally improvisational and rhapsodic" thought, avoiding the weaknesses of cyclic procedures often evident in other works.[4]

Structure

The quartet is scored for 2 violins, viola and cello and is in four movements:

  1. Moderato
  2. Presto
  3. Andante
  4. Allegro molto

References
  1. Bloch, String Quartets. Pristine Audio CD PACM120 (2023), reviewed at MusicWeb International
  2. "String Quartet No. 2 - Details - AllMusic". AllMusic.
  3. 'Ernest Bloch (1880-1959), String Quartet No. 2', Laurel LR-826CD (2003), reviewed at MusicWeb International
  4. Frederick Rimmer. 'Ernest Bloch's Second String Quartet', in Tempo, No. 52 (Autumn 1959), pp. 11-16 and 19
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