String Quartet No.1 in A major Op.2 (Parts)

Dvorak String Quartet No.1 in A major Op.2 (Parts)

Study score available TP539

With updated foreword (Cz/Eng/Ger) based on the latest research findings

Dvořák was only twenty years old when he wrote his String Quartet No.1 in A major, Op.2 (1862).  The work is considered to be the composer’s second important work, after the String Quintet in A minor Op.1.

Dvořák did not return to working on Op.2 until 1887, when he was revising his early works. He deleted sections from this substantial quartet sparing only the Scherzo; the other movements where all cut by up to a third.  The work was finally premiered by orchestral musicians from the National Theatre, but a printed edition was not published until the middle of the 20th century.

This new Bärenreiter edition presents the main musical text from the Complete Edition of 1989 which gives the work in its final form, after Dvořák’s revision.  The edition is based on the autograph and on hand-written parts.

The cello parts have previously been published in older editions in the treble clef requiring them to be played an octave down. In these new editions the parts are written in bass and tenor clefs which makes them easier to read by the cellist.