Günter Raphael String Quartet No. 6 in F Major Op. 54

Günter Raphael String Quartet No. 6 in F Major Op. 54 Born in Berlin in 1903, Günter Raphael was from his earliest years surrounded by his family’s cultural tradition of music and an extensive knowledge of classical and humanistic literature. His grandfather, Albert Becker, was an important Berlin composer and church musician who came from a long line of church music directors. His grandfather Georg Becker had a comprehensive library of music that gave Günter access to the entire music literature. As a child Günter played viola and piano and worked through the complete chamber repertoire with his mother. He also studied organ literature from the scores of past centuries, and so at an early age he was at home with all musical styles, which allowed him to develop compositional skills on his own. In 1922, he was awarded the Robert Schumann Leipzig Foundation Scholarship and attended the Berlin University of Music to study composition with Robert Kahn. From 1926 to 1934 he was professor of composition and musical theory at the Gewandhaus of Leipzig. Like many other musicians, artists, and men of letters, Raphael got caught in the field of tension produced by dictatorship and racist madness during the Nazi period from 1933 to 1945. Although his oeuvre was not branded as ‘degenerate’ – mainly because he was too firmly rooted in the German music tradition for such a label – his Jewish heritage on his father’s side made him ‘persona non-grata’, and in 1934 he lost his teaching position. In the same year, he showed symptoms of a particularly severe case of tuberculosis, from which he would never recover. Yet in spite of his illness, miserable hospital circumstances, professional ostracism and the increasing mortal danger posed by the SS (especially after 1941), Raphael continued to compose profusely. It was very difficult, however, for him to regain recognition after the war as he had been banned too long from German musical life by the Nazis. In spite of the fact that he helped his colleagues through the procedure of ‘denazification’ giving them a new chance, ironically there was no support for him. Even though he found publishers for his unpublished pre-1945 compositions and the radio stations reopened their doors to him, it was impossible to reclaim his pre-war musical status. Raphael was extraordinarily versatile and prolific. In the beginning, he wrote tonal music in the Romantic tradition in the style of Brahms and Reger. Over the years he developed his unmistakable individuality, portraying lush sound and polyphonic structures. His music radiates a strong spiritual and intellectual concentration, through his eminent contrapuntal mastery and his enjoyment in combining prominent melodic elements with an inventive abundance of rhythmic elements in a clear formal sense. In spite of some depressive episodes, there is an unmistakable humour in his writing. His late period demonstrates an approach to the 12-tone music, which Raphael significantly described as ‘tonal 12-tone’. His oeuvre consists of numerous symphonic works along with choral and solo works for religious and secular settings, organ works, as well as a rich chamber music legacy, which includes his six string quartets. Raphael continued Raphael’s String Quartet No. 6 in F Major Op. 54 is a tempestuous piece full of anguish but with nuances of hope throughout. It was written just after the end of the 2nd World War and premiered in 1946 in Darmstadt, being a piece of its time. Virtually un-played and forgotten until the Christine Raphael Foundation invited Acacia to perform and record this with another two of Raphael’s String Quartets – Nos. 1 Op. 5 and 2 Op. 9 in Berlin. After seventy-one years since its debut in Damstadt this concert at the Sydney Opera House will be the Australian premiere performance. Acacia’s CD album is due for release later in 2018. Program notes kindly prepared by Elizabeth Dalton. .

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