Josef Suk: Meditation on the Old Bohemian chant "Saint Wenceslas", op. 35a
Leoš Janáček: Quartet inspired by L.N. Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata" JW VII/8
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106, B192
Listening to Czech quartet work performed by foreign performers is always an experience, in the case of this concert all the greater because it is a leading British quartet. All three works were premiered by the famous Czech Quartet, probably our most important quartet group, and the concert is thus a tribute to this legendary ensemble.
The patriotic appeal was embodied by Josef Suk (1874–1935) in the year of the outbreak of the First World War in the composition Meditation on the Old Bohemian Chant "Saint Wenceslas". The composition, which was the flagship of the world-famous Czech quartet, of which Josef Suk was a member, soon flew around almost all of Europe. The work of immense fragility and remarkable sonority is still one of Suk's most performed chamber pieces.
Leoš Janáček's (1854–1928) quartet inspired by L.N. Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata" dates from 1923. However, the beginnings of the composition date back to 1908, when Janáček composed the now-unknown Piano Trio, inspired by the same Tolstoy novella. The work, which is completely Janáček's own, full of passion and emotion, was dedicated by the composer to the Czech Quartet, which also premiered it on October 17, 1924. The then seventy-year-old author celebrated great success with this work, e.g. in 1925 at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in Venice.
The extensive String Quartet No. 13 is the first work by Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) composed after his return from New York in 1895, and thus represents a sample of the composer's last creative period. Dvořák wrote it as if in one breath in less than a month, and it belongs to the most mature works of his chamber work, and what's more, it is one of the most fundamental works of European absolute music of the time. This exceptional composition was premiered on October 9, 1896 by the Czech Quartet.
Jiří Zahrádek
