The String Quartet No. 4 of Alexander von Zemlinsky was composed in 1936 and dedicated to the memory of Zemlinsky's friend Alban Berg who had died on Christmas Eve 1935. Like Berg's Lyric Suite for string quartet, Zemlinsky's Fourth is a suite of six movements consisting of an alternation of fast and slow tempos. The opening Prelude is marked senza expressione and quotes the main theme of Zemlinsky's second quartet, the theme that is a musical symbol for Zemlinsky himself. The second movement is a brutal rondo Burlesque like the closing movement of Zemlinsky's Third. The third movement is the lyrical heart of the work, a brief but deeply emotional Adagietto. The fourth movement is called Intermezzo, but it is actually the pivotal dramatic moment in the quartet: after energetic and heroic striving, the music seems to expire in the upper air of the violins. The penultimate movement is a Theme and Variations subtitled Barcarole, a comforting and consoling interlude before the fury of the Finale-Doppelfuge (Finale-Double Fugue). Recalling the themes, rhythms, and particularly the frenzied energy of the Burlesque and the Intermezzo in its themes and their working out, the Finale takes the Fourth to a thrilling and terrifying conclusion.

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