Smetana & Dvořák: Works for String Quartet

Dvorak, Antonin, Smetana, Bedrich

The Wihan Quartet

NI 6422

Loss of hearing forced Smetana to leave his position at the Provincial Theatre and withdraw from social life and his musical career. In 1876 he moved to his daughter Zofie ́s house in Jabkenice. Here he was able to enjoy the calm and quite needed so that he could focus on his compositions. The change in his circumstances made him reflect on his life and he captured his feelings in his String Quartet No.1 in E-minor From my Life.

Smetana described the work as “intimate and private music for four instruments talking about my life”. However, the opposite was true of this epic score of programme music. Until this time the techniques used by Smetana in this quartet had only been used by composers writing for symphony orchestra. He used symphonic techniques with brilliant effect for chamber music.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) String Quartet No 12 in F Major, American, Op 96From 1892 to 1895 Dvořák was the director of the National Conservatory in New York. He composed many masterpieces during this time and one of them was his String quartet in F Major, Op.96, American.

The American is one of Dvořák’s most played works and one of the most popular works in the chamber music repertoire. Filled with joy and optimism, Dvořák tried to capture the characteristics of American music, using pentatonic scales, syncopation and melodic themes of typical American revue music.
© Jaromir Havlik

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Nimbus

1.09.2022

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