Tuesday, October 28, 2025
7:30 PM
Holy Trinity Anglican Church
with the support of the
Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences of Alberta (SVU)
Zemlinsky Quartet
František Souček, Petr Střížek – violin
Petr Holman – viola
Vladimír Fortin – violoncello
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) needs no introduction as one of the greatest and most influential music composers of all time. Born in Bonn to the musical family that moved from the southern Netherlands, his musical talents became obvious at an early age. After starting with his father, he moved to Vienna in 1792 to study with Haydn, quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist and an exceptional composer. He wrote 16 quartets, the last five being referred to as “the late quartets”. These works are widely considered to be among the greatest musical oeuvres ever written, but their intellectual complexity makes them considerably less popular than the earlier quartets. Today’s quartet, one of his shortest, is the last such work before the late group. He declared it“… written for a small circle of connoisseurs, not to be performed in public” This is likely because it includes experiments with new compositional techniques.
Bedřich Smetana (1824 – 1884) is widely regarded as the father of Czech music – at least in his homeland. His musical style gradually became closely identified with his land’s aspirations to independent statehood. Internationally he is best known for his opera Prodaná nevěsta (“The Bartered Bride”) and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast (“My Homeland”). However, according to the foremost Canadian pianist of Czech origin Antonín Kubálek, “… it is the body of his piano works that truly represent the vintage Smetana…his almost 100 compositions are marvelous virtuoso showpieces, at least equal in technical demands to those of Liszt ”. In contrast, Smetana’s chamber work output is meagre; only two string quartets, one piano trio, a juvenile fantasy on Czech national song for violin and piano, and the violin-piano duo Z domoviny (“From the homeland”). The famous programmatic 1st quartet Z mého života (“From My Life”) was conceived in 1876, when he realized that his deafness became permanent, affecting his remaining life. It is a rare case when a string quartet has a detailed program attached to it. See detailed comments about this Czech musical treasure in the enclosure.
Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928) is – together with Dvořák, Smetana and Martinu – a part of the fourfoil of the internationally renown Czech composers. His original musical style stems from his interest in folkloristic research and earlier studies of national folk music. This is reflected in his mature works, first evident in the opera Jeji Pastorkyna (known as Jenůfa abroad) which opened the road to fame for him. His other internationally admired works include the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, six more operas (Janacek’s are the most often staged 20th century operas worldwide) and the most popular of all his large compositions, the Sinfonietta. His two string quartets belong to the last and most creative period of his life, both having a unique, strong programmatic character. The 2nd quartet presents a reflection of his very extensive correspondence with “his muse” Kamila Stosslova, a happily married woman to whom he became emotionally attached. The four movements give musical description of the composer’s most cherished and innermost memories and thoughts about Kamila, thus another case of a programmatic quartet.
Prepared by Prof. (Emer.) P. Jelen (using texts from Wikipedia and other publicly available sources).
Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet From My Life
by Petr Holman, violist of the Zemlinsky Quartet
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) composed his String Quartet No. 1 in E minor “From My Life” in 1876. This masterpiece is one of the most ingenious creations of chamber music in the world, although it should be noted that this work is not always understood in such a fundamental way as in the Czech Republic; perhaps because abroad, there is no general awareness of the programmatic nature of this work or the powerful story of the composer portrayed in this piece. The quartet is clearly a programmatic work (in itself exceptional for that time in the world of chamber music) – it is a personal confession of the composer, illustrating how music interacted with the various stages of his life; the work becomes, in effect, the composer’s innermost musical confession. Smetana himself described this work in detail in a letter to his friend Josef Srb. We could perhaps compare it to Beethoven’s Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135, since both works contain biographical elements and summarize life experience of the composers. The Smetana quartet was first performed at a private premiere in 1878, with Antonín Dvořák playing viola. The first public premiere took place in the spring of 1879.
The first movement, Allegro vivo appassionato, grabs us with unprecedented force. Smetana writes in a letter: „The call of fate to the struggle of this life. An affection for art in my youth; an affection for romance in music, in love, in life in general; longing for something I could not enunciate or clearly imagine, and also a warning of my musical misfortune; that long-sounding tone in the finale arose from this beginning; it is that fatal whistling of the highest notes in my ear which in 1874 announced my deafness. I allowed myself this little comparison because it was so fatal to me.“ After the onset of the sharp and hard opening chord, there comes the “cry of fate” in the voice of the viola. After thirteen bars, the viola’s voice is interrupted by a harsh chord. The tension of the movement increases. In this struggling music, Smetana presents a depiction of an artistic and life attitude. There is a constant tension between content and form. Smetana partly used the formal canon to maintain the dramatic effect.
Smetana grew up well-acquainted with the polka, a Czech national dance. That is surely why he included the Quasi polka movement in the quartet. It shows the dance environment of the composer’s time in two different forms. Smetana writes of it: “Quasi polka brings me back in my memories to the joyful life of my youth, both among the villagers and in the palace in high society, where I spent almost all my young years, as a composer of dance pieces and as an avid dancer myself. I was also fond of travelling.” The movement begins with a village polka, danced by the locals in pubs. A postman passes by the pub, being announced by the characteristic signal of a post horn. The second part is then a salon polka, where we can clearly feel refinement of a chateau; the interesting musical point here is that this polka has no clear melody at its core. At the end, the two polkas come together in the festive conclusion of this movement.
Of the third movement, Largo sostenuto, Smetana wrote: “…It reminds me of the bliss of my first love for a girl who later became my faithful wife. The struggle with adversity, the final reaching of the goal.” This slow movement of the quartet is music full of tenderness and love, but with a shadow of anguish. The recollection of a beloved being also reminds the composer of her tragic passing away and the grief of loneliness, experienced later.
Fourth movement Vivace. Meno presto is the climax of the quartet. It follows the first movement in its conceptual content. In the first movement the composer wrote of artistic aspirations, and here, a mature artist confesses. “The recognition of national consciousness in our beautiful art, the happy success of this journey, until at last the high-pitched whistle rings out in my ear as a warning of my cruel fate, of my present deafness, which has forever closed to me the bliss of hearing and enjoying the beauties of our art. Submitting myself to irrevocable fate, which echoed already in the first sentence of the warning, with a tiny ray of hope for a better future.” Smetana starts this movement in an optimistic spirit. After the beautiful, Smetana-like cheerfulness, a chord that does not belong to the basic key of the movement suddenly comes, followed by a long pause. Above the tremolo of the second violin and viola there is the almost physically unpleasant whistle of a high harmonics of the first violin. It describes the moment when Smetana finally lost his hearing. This interrupts and completely shatters the entire musical structure of the movement. There is a frightening unease. In a few bars we get a retrospective look into the composer’s life, and with that, the whole quartet ends.
