Bedřich Smetana

String Quartets

Zemlinsky Quartet

Label: Evil Penguin
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917725629

Catalog number: EPRC 0069
Releasedate: 07-02-25

- an homage to Czech music with Smetana's String Quartets performed by the Czech Zemlinsky quartet
- own arrangement for string quartet of “The Dance of Comedians” from the opera The Bartered Bride by Petr Holman
- An idiomatic account by one of Czech leading string quartets.
- their first Evil Penguin Classic album - with music by Béla Bartók and Ernst von Dohnányi - in collaboration with Paolo Giacometti received a CHOC de Classica and a Coup de cœur by RITMO

Smetana’s two string quartets could be said to be the first programmatic chamber music pieces ever written. The first quartet is a remarkable work with a very strong connection to Czech musicians. It belongs among the real treasures of Czech chamber music. The main characteristic of the second quartet is its intensity of musical ideas, as the composer was deaf and close to the end of his life. The Dance of Comedians illustrates the famous era of Smetana ́s being considered the Czech national composer.

String Quartet No. 1 E Minor 'From My Life”

I. Allegro vivo appassionato

08:17

String Quartet No. 1 E Minor 'From My Life”

II. Allegro moderato à la Polka

05:40

String Quartet No. 1 E Minor 'From My Life”

III. Largo sostenuto

09:01

String Quartet No. 1 E Minor 'From My Life”

IV. Vivace

06:26