# Czech Quartets



## Quartetfore

During our recent experience with "Sandy" (no lights or heat for 5 days) I took out my good old CD Walkman, and to pass the the time I played several quartets composed by Czech`s. Fibich, Forester and Suk. What enjoyable music, and how well played by fellow country men.


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## Art Rock

Dvorak, Smetana, Martinu as well....


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## quack

Bedřich Smetana's name means "peaceful ruler of sour cream" apparently. Fun fact #45. It is always heartening to see there are so many composers from a country that I know so little of. Assuming they get recorded you could live off just Czech composers and their rich creamy music for life. I was thinking of getting Franz X. Richter's string quartets, didn't know he was morn in that region too.


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## Art Rock

... and Janacek of course ....

come to think of it, I would be hard-pressed to name any Czech composer after Janacek and Martinu. What am I missing?


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## quack

Jan Dismas Zelenka
Johann Vanhal
Erwin Schulhoff
Josef Reicha
Antonio Rosetti
Josef Mysliveček
Ottokar Nováček
Leopold Kozeluch
Ignaz Moscheles
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

Are some of the more famous but it is only due to the shaking out of history that they are now part of the Czech republic, they would have probably thought of themselves as Bohemian or Austrian. Ernst Krenek is another, born in modern Austria of a Czech father.


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## Quartetfore

Pavel Haas-String Quartet #2("From the Monkey Mountains) a great work, and great rendition by the Pavel Haas Quartet. 
Haas 1899-1944) was student of Janacek, and died in the Auschwitz death camp in 1944.
Quack, Man can not live on sweet cream alone, during our extended "black out" I did listen to the Beethoven 0p#130 and the Schubert #15.


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## quack

I has Haas combined with another Czech in the Entartete series, Hans Krása, who also died at Auschwitz along with Gideon Klein and Viktor Ullmann. I prefer my late romantic cream with a little bit of acid modernism such as Krenek's sharp and tangy quartets.


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## jurianbai

Smetana, Janacek, Dvorak, Fibich, Martinu, all among my regular listening. Josef Suk, not yet. For Romantic, are Hummel, Franz Krommer, Vanhal, Pavel Vranicky. I'm waiting for Antonin Reicha string quartet, since most of his recording are wind chamber works. Earlier were FX Richter , Antonio Rosetti (born Anton Rossler), all have a string quartet recording.

Then Vitzslav Novak.


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## Head_case

Quartetfore said:


> Pavel Haas-String Quartet #2("From the Monkey Mountains) a great work, and great rendition by the Pavel Haas Quartet.
> Haas 1899-1944) was student of Janacek, and died in the Auschwitz death camp in 1944.
> Quack, Man can not live on sweet cream alone, during our extended "black out" I did listen to the Beethoven 0p#130 and the *Schubert #15*.


Should we be wishing you more blackouts then 

Yes - the Pavel Haas Quartet players seem to have produced the most refined playing of the famous Haas quartet. I have the Hawthorne Quartet version on Decca for comparison, and it is preferable, only in so far as the players thankfully omit those awful drums.  Although Haas had Monkey Mountains scored for string quartet and drums, I often wonder if he could have been more economical and creative, by using the cello as a drum, rather than the unnecessary clutter. Overall, I listen to the Hawthorne Quartet version for their lack of capricious annoyance with the drums. It also wouldn't have killed Supraphon to couple all the Pavel Haas String Quartets together, rather than splitting them across CDs with Janacek string quartets, which forces buyers to duplicate. If record companies behave this way, then it makes another good argument for digital downloads, so that listeners can download just the string quartets they wish for, without unnecessary and expensive duplication....

Sommer's deleted masterpieces are worth discovering:


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## joen_cph

*Emil Frantisek Burian* (1904 - 1959) was another very colourful figure, partly influenced by jazz and contemporary avant-garde, like for instance Martinu and Jaroslav Jezek (who wrote a great string quartet almost reminding of the later Shostakovich ones). A bit of Burian´s music can be found on you-tube.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_František_Burian
http://business.highbeam.com/263/article-1G1-127354203/e-f-burian-sweep-stage

Quartet 4, a rather late work:


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## Quartetfore

Head Case, No thank you on another black out. My Daughter lost power for 10 days, she has a home about 5 miles away.
I do like those drums, but then again I like the Castanets on one of those Boccherini quintets.
I agree with you about picking and chosing, I now only download what I want rather than buying complete albums. I am updating some old favorites, so I have in the past few weeks downloaded
Tchaikovsky QT#1 Klenke Quartet
Borodin#2 Borodin Qt (new) 
Dvorak op96 Haas Qt
Shostakovich #9 Mandelring Qt
My older recordings feature very fine performances, but there is a certain pleasure in up todate sound.


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## Head_case

Yes...electricity is going up in price from the new year over here 

I'm hoping Supraphon will re-release the Pavel Haas Quartet recordings properly in their reissue before I contemplate getting them. They did well in recording the two Prokofiev string quartets together, even if they have a tough job equalling the superlative performance of the American String Quartet classic. 

The excellent Tchaikovsky String Quartet in D Major (well, it is much much better written than the irritating first movement of No.II or tedium of No. III imho) is recorded by the Végh Quartet. Their version is the only version I have of this work: it is the only one I've ever wanted to hear, it's that satisfying. 

Re: the Borodin No.2 - I own the Borodin Quartet (original EMI) version; the Quatuor Anton (the fabulous 1989 Evian Concours Prize winners, but deleted and very hard to find) and the excellent St Petersburg Quartet readings. There is little between them. Perhaps the phrasing of the Quatuor Anton is more sensitively played in the String Quartet No.I - they take a whole minute longer. In the lilting romance of the No.II, the Quatuor Anton run the fastest tempo with the St Petersburg Quartet coming in the slowest. The scherzo movement by the Quatuor Anton is particularly fluid and lively. The Borodin Quartet recording is warm analogue - not sure about the newer recording, but I like the playing of all three quartets above.


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## Quartetfore

Head case, I have the older version as well as the Emerson recording. I think the newer is a bit slower than both, but what is the rush in this beautiful music.


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## Head_case

Yup! That's why the Quatuor Anton perhaps plays it most gracefully, clocking in at a minute slower for Quartet No. I. 

Scherzos however have to be played at a speed lol. They play theirs very sprightly and lively that it stands out much more than the slower playing of other ensembles. My guess is that it isn't as hard to play, as say, music by Xenakis or Ligeti, so that other Borodin Quartet recordings should be generally of a good standard.


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## Quartetfore

I don`t have the timing of the old Borodin Quartet, but Emerson play the work in about 28 minutes. The new Borodin takes about 32 minutes.


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## Head_case

Yup - the old Borodin 1980 EMI release (licensed from Melodiya) clocks in at just over 28 minutes too. This is a warm and inviting recording and sounds like a vinyl transfer well-done with the original Borodins playing in a style that Haydn fans would like. 

The Quatuor Anton recording is quite exemplary in this respect: it really befuddles me as to why it was deleted. This is a DDD digital era recording, yet is warmer and more organic than the Borodin Quartet ensemble. From as early as the first few bars, the undulating motifs of Borodin's scherzo expand and contract from the same organic corpus created by the four players: in contrast, the Borodin Quartet ensemble play with lucid crescentic rise and falls of volume, sounding like crescendos and diminuendos sound, instead of the pulsating organism created by the playing of the Quatuor Anton. They clock in at a just a under 27minutes and 17 seconds.

Haven't heard any other ensemble play with such a fabulous 'vinyl' era sound as the Quatuor Anton - with the exception of the Quatuor Mosaiques, whose period instruments really reveal a different tonal world. The Quatuor Anton play on Hennessy instruments (go look that up on google!). Their sound is the least stressful of the versions and most relaxing, ironically, the fastest played! The Borodin Quartet strings need taming at the highest register at times and whisker harmonics breakup the otherwise excellent disc. It should be good anyway; they took their name from Borodin after converting it from the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet. Theirs is far preferable over the International String Quartet version. Maybe even the St Petersburg String Quartet, although this is an exceedingly recommendable version if you can't get your hands on the Quatuor Anton recording.

If you find a modern recording that can rival the best of the 1980's/1990's, it's probably just the string quartet no.2 without the no.1


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## Quartetfore

I don`t think that the Quatuor is still active, or at least not recording. there is a recording of Glinka quartets still available. As for the Glinka quartets, I have a recording of the F major, and think that it is nothing very special. I am sure its an early work, and composed before he found his "voice".


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## Head_case

Is your Glinka F major the same as mine - by the Gostelradio Quartet?

I found it a filler coupled with their better played Myaskovsky String Quartet No. XIII.


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## Quartetfore

No,Its performed by a quartet made up by members of the Dresden Staaskapelle. Its on a German label called Pilz. I founded it a number of years ago on a trip to Germany.


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## Quartetfore

I just got around to downloading a playing the Op. 61 quartet by Kalliwoda (1801-66), and I`m sorry I waited. This a very enjoyable work!
The first movement is in the Quatuor Brillant style
The second lyric

The third, a scherzo played pizzicato with a brief folk like trio. I had to stop and played it again. The last movement is a very nice vivace.
All in all, a very nice addition


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## Head_case

Haven't come across the Dresden group. Kalliwoda sounds like something Jurianbai and romantic lovers would appreciate.

Here is an early work by Ivo Blaha:






The recording by the Stamic Quartet of the Quartet No.III explores the full dynamic range of the violin - extremely tense piece of work splintering with pizzicati across its glissandi micro-intervals. This one won the second prize in the UNESCO International Composers Tribune. I rarely see recordings of his works but it seems to be very popular for digital downloads.


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## Quartetfore

The Glinka shared the disc with a Schubert early work, and Hindermith Minimax. The Hindermith has to be one of the great fun works. Its a takeoff on a villiage band, and was worth the few Marks I paid for it.
The idea behind the CD was to showcase East German String Quartets, and it was recorded in 1990. The sound aint great!The other groups are the Hantzschk Quartet of the Berlin Symphony and the String Quartet of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.


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## Head_case

Glinka is rather disappointing (of what I have heard). Liadov & Sokolov's works in Les Vendredis are quite pleasing in their small measure. However, I notice we are drifting back to being swallowed up by the Soviet dominance of the Czech chamber form.

Zdenek Lukas' string quartet 'Finale' is very beautiful. His other works appear in the Prague Spring collection:










This is contemporary(ish) Czech music. Fiser & Bodorova are fairly popular composers who have been rediscovered after their tragic ending. It's an interesting disc, well played, but my impression after owning it (and losing it) is that it is music for the converted.


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## mnsCA

quack said:


> Jan Dismas Zelenka
> Johann Vanhal
> Erwin Schulhoff
> Josef Reicha
> Antonio Rosetti
> Josef Mysliveček
> Ottokar Nováček
> Leopold Kozeluch
> Ignaz Moscheles
> Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
> 
> Are some of the more famous but it is only due to the shaking out of history that they are now part of the Czech republic, they would have probably thought of themselves as Bohemian or Austrian. Ernst Krenek is another, born in modern Austria of a Czech father.


I would disagree. 'Bohemia' is an exonym for 'Čechy', the western historical region of the Czech Republic. The term 'Bohemian' has historically been applied to both germanic and slavic inhabitants of Bohemia. The slavic inhabitants of Bohemia (and Moravia/Moravian Silesia) have referred to themselves as 'Češi' in their own language (čeština) since time immemorial, and it was only until relatively recently (the rise of nationalism) that English and other languages applied the word 'Czech', which is derived from archaic spelling of 'Čech', to the slavic inhabitants of Bohemia.

I am unsure of the ethnicity of some of these composers, but those of slavic ethnicity would have likely self-identified as 'Čech' (masculine sing. noun) in their native language, despite being citizens of the Austrian Empire.


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## KenOC

A great buy on Czech string quartets now...all of Dvorak, Smetana, Martinu, and Janacek -- 15 hours -- for nine bucks. I got this and it sounds very good.

http://www.amazon.com/Czech-String-..._shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376357909&sr=301-1


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## Quartetfore

You found yourself a bargin! I`m not very keen on the early Dvorak quartets, though there are always some beautiful moments to be found in them.


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