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TALICH QUARTET 13
Kalliwoda’s
oeuvre
includes all types of compositions. He wrote seven symphonies,
many overtures and a number of concertos for solo instruments. His shorter works
for keyboard and solo songs, both prolifically produced, reflected the growing
demand for“house music” in the nineteenth century.
String quartets were not often performed publicly in the early nineteenth century;
they were more often heard in the private sphere. One unusual way of performing
quartetswas to become a travelling virtuosowhowent fromplace to placewithhis
own string trio: a simple and inexpensiveway of offering concerts to the public. The
rise of the“brilliant quartet” went hand in hand with the gradual changeover from
private to public performance of the genre. As the quartet became increasingly
public, it emphasised to a greater and greater extent the virtuoso role of the first
violin.
Carl Gotthelf Böhme, an editor at Peters in Leipzig, ordered three string quartets
from Kalliwoda in 1831, indicating the type of work he wanted, saying the quartets
should be “non-concertant for the first violin, with the music nicely divided up
among the instruments, not heavy for any of them, and in the beautiful style of
Mozart”.
The works were completed three years later.