Serenade op.4 für

Ernst Krenek was as young as the century when his Serenade op. 4 was performed on July 31, 1921 at the newly established Donaueschingen Chamber Music Performances for the Promotion of Contemporary Music. In later years, Krenek was also occasionally represented at this new music festival, which soon became known simply as the "Donaueschinger Musiktage" and is now one of the oldest special festivals in the world, albeit with works that hardly seem to be written by one and the same composer. Krenek was aware of his almost chameleon-like transformations and was willing to accept that he "fared poorly compared to the great masters of the past, whose work presents itself to us as a well-rounded, logically organized unity." Something of the confusing stylistic diversity is already evident in the Serenade, composed in 1919, although at first glance it seems to remain in the sphere of his teacher Franz Schreker and Viennese late Romanticism. A vague hint of Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade wafts in...... .... Hans Gál, Hans Gál - a Jew in Germany and from 1938 also directly threatened in his native country Austria - found refuge in England, initially as an internee, as his book Musik hinter Stacheldraht vividly describes. Hans Gál remained rooted in the Viennese tradition of the 'long' 19th century. His Serenade from 1935 is an elegant and melodious work that never violates the boundaries of tonality. It is no coincidence that the stylistic attitude and masterful craftsmanship are reminiscent of Johannes Brahms and his former favorite, .... Krzysztof Penderecki's Clarinet Quartet, which also exists as Sinfonietta No. 2 in a version with string orchestra, was composed in 1993, close to the Metamorfosen (2nd Violin Concerto). It is an atmospherically quite peaceful work that almost touches on Schubertian spheres, which develops from a delicate dialogue between clarinet and viola (Notturno)