Wetz, Richard

Wetz, Richard – Quartet Nr. 1 f Minor op. 43 for two violins, viola and cello (Set Score & 4 Parts)

Richard Wetz (1875–1935): String Quartet No. 1 F Minor op. 43 (1916) 1st Movement: Slow and solemn 2nd Movement: Scherzo: Lively, with humour – Trio: Calm and very tender 3rd Movement: Slow and expressive 4th Movement: Passionately animated Richard Wetz, born February 26, 1875 in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia (now Gliwice, Poland) and died January 16, 1935 in Erfurt, was amongst a group of composers, who by acting as a musical director or pedagogue in the early 20th century significantly shaped musical life in the German province. In 1897, Wetz began studying at the Leipzig Conservatory. Frustrated by the classes of Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn, he left the conservatoire after a few months and took lessons from Richard Hofmann, the Head of the Leipziger Singakademie, and the private music instructor Alfred Apel, a pupil of Friedrich Kiel’s. In 1900, Wetz deepened his knowledge of fugal techniques and instrumentation by studying with Ludwig Thuille in Munich and pursued a career in conducting. Following his stints as theatre music director in various German cities – only serving for a short time in each of his posts due to his dissatisfaction with the opera business – he returned to Leipzig in 1903 without a position and carried out autodidactic studies in the fields of music, literature and philosophy: “My immersion in the works of Goethe, Schopenhauer and Hölderlin grows ever stronger. These geniuses made me more acutely aware of my inner strengths and taught me not to search for the true value and meaning of life in the noisy world, but instead in silence and solitude, who has become my most compassionate friend” (Richard Wetz in “My love for music”, 1923)

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