Presents
Valborg Aulin
String Quartet No.2 in e minor, Op.17
Valborg Aulin's String Quartet No.2 in e minor dates from 1889. The powerful first movement, Allegro appassionato by virtue by the use of double stops creates a massive sound bordering on the orchestral. The second movement, Andante con moto, is a kind of song without words, lovely and highly romantic. Third is a bright Scherzo, allegro con spirito. The finale, Presto, starts off in a somewhat mysterious vein and then races along full of energy highlighted by the use of tremolo.
During her lifetime, Valborg Aulin (1860-1928) was overshadowed by her younger brother Tor Aulin who was for several decades one of Europe's foremost violinists. She began as a pianist but went on to formally study composition between 1877-82 at the Royal Academy in Stockholm where her teachers included Hermann Berens and Ludwig Norman. Scholarships enabled her to travel to Copenhagen where she was able to study with Niels Gade, and then to Paris where she took lessons from Benjamin Goddard and Jules Massenet. After completing her studies, she embarked upon a composing career based in Stockholm for the next twenty years during which she initially had some small critical success but ultimately had less and less as time went on. Finally, she gave up in defeat and moved to the provincial city of Örebro where she spent the rest of her life eaking out a living as a music teacher. She wrote two string quartets.
Life is not always fair. Valborg Aulin was a competent composer who wrote finished works which were not only pleasing to hear but also fun to play. Like her first quartet, her String Quartet No.2 is yet another example, a solid work deserving concert performance and a place on the stands of home music makers. Our edition is based on copies of parts made from the manuscript in the Music Library of Sweden by the Tomas Löndahl for Swedish Broadcasting Corporation so that a recording of this work could be made.
Parts: $24.95
