Violine I (Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words))

Also available for guitar and string orchestra HERE.

Sef Albertz's reimagined version of Felix Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words) for Guitar and String Quartet: "...an excellent work...undoubtedly extraordinary!", according to Leo Brouwer, the composer and worldwide leading figure of the guitar, who attended the world premiere in 2009 at the Gewandhaus Leipzig.

"The music of the great composer Felix Mendelssohn is enough by itself, not so much to understand as to feel. His “Lieder ohne Worte”, that exquisite collection of great miniatures that the illustrious adoptive son of Leipzig dedicated to the piano, have been part of the musical preferences that have accompanied me for years, either for the simple pleasure of enjoying music, or for the dazzling discovery of the wonderful structure that, as a form, acquire each of these musical pearls.

The guitar, which is commonly described as an intimate instrument, could have played a more important role in the music of the Romantic period, which, as is well known, was dominated by the presence of the piano and its great virtuosos, and there were not many great guitar soloists. Thus, the great composers of that period, often exceptional pianists moreover, devoted all their inspiration to the instrument with which that entire era is associated. That is why the presence of the guitar in the “opus” of the great romantic composers is missed.

Once while traveling by train, accompanied by the “Mendelssohn’s Lieder”, I suddenly heard the sound of a guitar accompanied by a cello and then by a violin duet and a long list of combinations of string instruments. Then I became aware that these wonderful pieces gave me the opportunity to make my dream come true : to hold the guitar in the company of a string ensemble, to enjoy the pleasure of recreating the music of the great Felix Mendelssohn in a kind of “Suite Concertante”.

In this Suite, besides listening to Mendelssohn, there are also some of my own contributions, not because the great composer deserves it, but because as a composer and arranger, I do not believe that justice is done to a composition by copying it literally. I have reimagined this music, adapting the guitar (as the main solo instrument) in a constant dialogue with the other members of the string formation. The scores and recordings of Mendelssohn's works for string orchestra, as well as his great orchestral pieces, were in my environment for many months.

My idea was not to present a “stylistic reconstruction of the facts” but to have the pleasure of the “Blessed Music”." (Sef Albertz)

Commissioned by GfzM e.V. Leipzig. 

WORLD PREMIERE: November 10th 2012 (Alte Handelsbörse Leipzig), during the Concert Series ‘Leipziger Herbst Con Guitarra!’.

Recorded by Sef Albertz on his concept album «Bunch of Strings».