“Kullervo paimenessa” (1896) by Sigfrid August Keinänen
The concert-going public doesn’t associate Sibelius with chamber music, but he actually composed quite a bit of it, including four string quartets. One of them, the Quartet in D Minor, Op.56, known as “Voces Intimae”, has made it into the standard repertoire. With it’s jaunty rhythms, peculiar twists and turns, and frenetic passages that must work up a sweat among the players, it has won a place in the sun, though it’s not in the same league with the famous Beethoven, Bartók, or Dvořák quartets. It’s always been a favourite of mine, because it seems to convey a mood that hits me occasionally, for which there is no common name. It was composed around the time of the stark, introspective Fourth Symphony, and it shares some of its strangeness. But Sibelius composed three others, seldom performed. The first, in E‑flat, is a youthful effort with little to commend it. It’s just warmed-over Hayden, constructed by the book. But the second and third ones, in A Minor and B‑flat, are listenable and entertaining. Sibelius pretty obviously drew his inspiration from Dvořák, but you can hear distinctively Sibelian elements in both. The B‑flat one has evolved sufficiently to stand next to Voces Intimae without shame, and it should be played more.
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