Hermann Grädener

C’est La Vie or, as the French say, Ça tombe bien (it all worked out in the end)!

This from Nick Cunningham, Vc, Springfield Center, NY.  who writes, “Today, Marc Bastuscheck (Vn/Va) New York, NY, and I sat down for quartets with Marco Zaider and Veronica Jacobs, at her New York apartment.

After the requisite Haydn opening (Op. 64, # 1) we considered. Marc had brought a wayward first viola part of a Hermann Grädener String Quartet No. 2 in D Major, Op. 39, which he had practiced for a date some years earlier and forgotten to return. Veronica looked to see if she had the quartet in the huge library of lesser-known chamber music that she and her late husband, Bert, had collected. 

She found it, but to her astonishment, it was missing the first viola part. But No! This was not a reunion of long lost parts; Marc’s first viola part was from a different publisher than Veronica’s remaining parts.

Anyway, we played it, or at least the first movement, which is long, elaborate and thick in a Brahmsian sort of way. And, when we lost sync a few times, we found the bar number signposts matched in all the parts!

How likely is such an event? In any case, we concluded that, as the French say, ‘Ça tombe bien!’

P.S. I rate lesser known works on my own Apgar Score. And gave the Graedener an 8.”