Jón Leifs - String Quartet No. 1 "Mors et vita" (Score Video)

Performed by the string quartet of the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra (Kammersveit Reykjavíkur)
Jón Leifs (1899-1968) was an Icelandic composer, the most famous from his country in the 20th century. For more about Leifs, see the description in my score video of his "Reminiscence du Nord" for string orchestra: • Jón Leifs - Reminiscen...
Leifs wrote three string quartets in all, and the first two are highly personal works tinged with tragedy. The second, which I will upload very soon, was one of four pieces written after his teenage daughter tragically drowned off the coast of Sweden. The first is not titled "Mors et vita" ("Death and life" in Latin) without reason; it was written in 1939, when not only Leifs' career in Germany but also the very existence of his Jewish wife, the pianist Annie Riethof, was under threat. While a typically sparse example of Leifs' writing for smaller instrumentations, the one-movement quartet is quite a moving work, mixing darkness and sudden bursts of life - or, perhaps more metaphorically, the bleakness of the composer's situation with humanity's constant striving for hope.
If you enjoyed this piece, do check the pinned comment for other works by Leifs that I have made available on my channel! I preferred this somewhat brighter recording for the video, but in case you would like to hear an even slower, bleaker rendition of the quartet, you can listen to the Yggdrasil Quartet's performance here: • String Quartet No. 1, ...

[@towardthesea_]

Other works by Leifs on my channel: String Quartet No. 2 "Vita et mors": kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWXLi6ebYqpgpck Requiem op. 33b for choir a cappella: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXWck4NmhM5gaKM Saga Symphony: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3O3gqFnhdigoZY Reminiscence du Nord for string orchestra: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jofHkp-YnZt2ja8

[@shadmium3471]

keep posting works from similar composers please! i love vaino raitio especially, but its unfortunate how he abandoned his modern style

[@towardthesea_]

My next video will be Leifs' second quartet. I have several Raitio scores but with his music, finding recordings (if they even exist) is usually the challenge...

[@shadmium3471]

@@towardthesea_ theres plenty of ondine recordings of raitio but for his later works theres not really any recordings, like his opera for example

[@towardthesea_]

@@shadmium3471 Yes, I mean that many of the scores I have don't have any recordings. For instance, I've put up Raitio's Triple Concerto on IMSLP, but there are no commercial recordings of it and none of my contacts in Finland (where I studied for a year) know of any other type of recording in existence. People in the know tell me that many of his later manuscripts are essentially sealed away and quite hard to get access to.