Hakon Børresen: Scherzo from String Quartet No. 2 in C Minor (1939)
The Erling Bloch String Quartet:
Erling Bloch, violin I
Lavard Friisholm, violin II
Hans Kassow, viola
Torben Svendsen, cello
Recorded on November 19, 1942, in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Gramophone Company 78-rpm matrix 2CS 2192-3. Issued in the HMV Red Label Scandinavian series as DB 5282, coupled with Schubert's Quartettsatz in C minor, which has been uploaded separately.
Born in Copenhagen to a Norwegian father, Hakon Børresen (1876-1954) studied composition with Johan Svendsen. He cultivated a late-Romantic style untouched by traces of modernism. The second of his two string quartets is in four movements, of which the present Scherzo (Intermezzo: Molto vivace) is placed second. It recalls the Scherzo of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, the main section (in C major) being played pizzicato and the slightly slower middle section (in E major) being played arco.
