Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 And 2

Nishizaki

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Cat No: 8550379

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 4891030503793

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SMETANA

Description
Bedřich Smetana (1824 - 1884)String Quartet No.1 in E Minor,"From my Life" String Quartet No.2 in D Minor Two Pieces for Violin and Piano,"From my Homeland"The last ten years of BedřichSmetana's life - he died at the age of 60 in 1884 - saw the gradual and totalbreakdown of his health, and the composition of some of his greatest music. Allsix symphonic poems in his cycle Ma vlast, or 'My country', come fromthis time; so do several operas, and both of the string quartets. He hadevolved a musical language that could lock into currents of national feelingbeyond the reach of other Czech composers, most famously in his opera TheBartered Bride. He was a successful conductor and theatre administrator andhad become a central figure in the musical life of Prague. Yet the first signsof illness were followed rapidly by the onset of deafness, which becamecomplete within a few months. Although he was able to stay active as amusician, having the instincts and skills to continue performing with other playersand the capacity to follow performances of music he knew by 'reading' theconductor's beat, his last years became a struggle to keep mind as well as bodytogether.As far as the string quartets areconcerned this case history is entirely relevant, for it affected the substanceas well as the emotional ambience of the music. You do not need to know thatNo.1 has a story-telling element in order to enjoy and appreciate a work thatfollows the tradition of Schubert in many ways: there are echoes in the harmony,in the static, brooding music of the opening and in the vigorous outbursts atthe centre of the first movement. Smetana's personal voice is clear in histurns of phrase and in the tight, foreshortened qualities of his large-scaleforms. At the end, the reassembly and transformation of themes from earlier inthe quartet is a practice that became increasingly common in 19th-century musicafter the symphonic poems and piano concertos of Liszt.Smetana himself thought that the music'sautobiographical programme was essentially a private matter. There are strongdramatic undertones in the way that the buoyant finale suddenly collapses andends in a subdued mood that seems to embody a sense of loss. Even so, there arestrictly musical reasons why this should appear to be so: ideas from the firstand last movements, initially radiant and confident, are slowed down and shownto be related. What remains unexplained is the wrench with which it happens,and the shrill, sustained high note that emerges on the violin. 'I permittedmyself this little joke because it was so disastrous to me " Smetana wrotewryly to a friend. He admitted that the note represented a high-pitchedwhistling that occurred inside his head every day when his deafness wasstarting. It is not a literal depiction -he told another friend that the noisewas a chord of A flat. But he did go on to say that other aspects of thequartet symbolise, in a broad way, the course of his life. In the firstmovement it was a l
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