Presents
Joseph Küffner
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Please note, the only recording of Küffner's arrangement we could find was of a live concert performance made by a group which for unknown reasons added a bass and harpsichord which are not part of his arrangement and all they do is double the bass line. Even so, this recording still clearly demonstrates the superiority of Küffner's arrangement over others which can be heard on youtube. |
Overture to Mozart's Don Giovanni for String Quartet
The opera Don Giovanni transcriped for String Quartet? The tradition of transcription has enjoyed a long and honored history. From the very beginning publishers such as Petrucci. Attaingnant and others all offered transcriptions of large scale works in arrangement for piano or small ensembles. With the appearance the opera, the works of such pioneers as Lully were transcribed and arranged for chamber groups. By the time of Mozart it was common place. Literally hundreds of arrangements for various ensembles of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni have been made. At least four and quite possibly more were made for string quartet. Among the most popular were those of Johann Wendt, Joseph Triebensee and Joseph Küffner. In our opinion, Küffner's was the best. During his lifetime, his many arrangements of popular operas were widely circulated and gave much pleasure.
Joseph Küffner (1776-1856) was born in the Bavarian city of Wurzburg where his father was the court music director. Küffner studied violin and served as a member of the Ducal Orchestra as well as a soloist. Besides the violin, he was proficient on the harpsichord, piano, organ, clarinet, basset horn and guitar. He later was appointed Military Music Director of Bavaria. His works for military band were so well thought of that for several decades the Armies of the Bavaria marched to his music. He wrote over 300 works in all genres, of which the bulk were for chamber ensembles and which were extraordinarily popular during his lifetime. Today, he is exclusively remembered for his compositions for the guitar and for wind instruments. Although primarily a violinist, like Paganini, Küffner's reached a very high level of proficiency on the guitar because he not only included it in his chamber music compositions, but also wrote etudes for it.
The original edition of Küffner's arrangement was published by the famous firm of Schott in Mainz and dates from 1796. Our new edition is a faithful rendering of the original.
Parts: $24.95
Parts & Score: $31.95
