#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalSextets, Week 2

June is the sixth month. It seemed a good time to make sextets the #ClassicsaDay monthly theme. The most common sextet is a doubled string trio. That is, two violins, two violas, and two cellos. But other combinations of instruments are possible. And beginning in the 20th Century just about every type of combination has been explored.

Here are my social media posts for the second week of #ClassicalSextets.

06/10/24 Antonín Dvořák: String Sextet in A major, Op. 48

Dvorak wrote the sextet in May, 1878. It received a private reading with violinist Joseph Joachim and friends. Joachim liked the work so much that he premiered it later that year and took it on tour with him.

 

06/11/24 Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1831) String Sextet

Pleyel was born in Austria but spent most of his career in France. He was able to successfully navigate the French Revolution, not only surviving but thriving in the New Republic.

 

06/12/24 Bohuslav Martinu: String Sextet for 2 violins, 2 violas, cello and contrabass

In 1932 Martinue won the Coolidge Prize for his String Sextet with Orchestra. His stand-alone string quartet was dedicated to Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge, the contest's sponsor.

 

06/13/24 Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942) String Sextet (1924)

Schulhoff studied with Claude Debussy and Max Reger. His string sextet was well-received, but his success didn't last. In 1941 he was sent to the Wülzburg prison camp by the Nazis where he died a year later.

 

06/14/24 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński: String Sextet for 2 violins, viola, 2 cello, and double bass

Dobrzyński was a classmate of Chopin's at the Warsaw Conservatory. Unlike Chopin, he remained in Poland, striving to develop a Polish national style of classical music. He succeeded in that his own music was performed outside of Poland.