Smetana, Bedrich-STRING QUARTETS

Smetana, Bedrich-STRING QUARTETS NO.1 ("From My Life") & NO.2

Renowned for such masterworks as the opera The Bartered Bride and Md Vlast (My Fatherland), a cycle of symphonic poems, Czech composer Bedlich Smetana (1824-1884) was also a composer of important chamber music. The two quartets in this volume are both autobiographical in nature. The first (String Quartet in E Minor), a musical recollection of the composer's youth, paints a picture of yearning ambition, a happy life and the delights of love; but at the end, there are hints of future difficulties that darken the quartet's sunny mood. The second work (String Quartet in D Minor), written in 1882 after deafness had overtaken Smetana, is less sanguine in tone. Its darker themes, suggesting the difficulties of the composer's life with the handicap of hearing loss, exert a powerful, emotional pull on the listener. Remarkable for their quasi-programmatic realism in recalling Smetana's life, both works are frequently heard and performed today. There are sixteen current recordings of Quartet No.1 alone. Musicians and music lovers will welcome their appearance in this attractive volume, reproduced from authoritative early editions.

Original Dover compilation of music from early authoritative editions. New English translation, by Stanley Appelbaum, of the composer's preface to String Quartet No.1. 96pp. 8:: x11::.

November 1997 29901-5 Paperbd.

Reprinted from Dover Fall 1997 catalog.

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