Athenäum Quartett Berliner Philharmoniker string quartet
Laurentius Dinca violin, Stephan Schulze violin, Walter Küssner viola, Stefan Giglberger cello
Josef Suk Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale «St. Wenceslas» op. 35a
Bedřich Smetana string quartet n. 1 in E minor JB 1:105 Aus meinem Leben
Antonín Dvořák da Cypresses (Echo of Songs) for string quartet B152: n. 1 Já vím, že v sladké naději ( I know there is still hope in my love), n. 2 V tak mnohém srdci mrtvo jest ( dead heart wakes up again)
Antonín Dvořák Quartet n. 12 in F major op. 96 Americano
“To demonstrate that we Czechs are not only musicians, as they say in the other countries, that we are only talented on the tips of our fingers and not in our brains, but on the contrary that we are creative and yes we have our own music. “
Smetana’s aim has been widely reached in the music programme of this concert which opens with Josef Suk: he was born in southern Bohemia in 1874, then an Austrian territory, and composed his Meditation upon the old Saint Wenceslas choral – the same choral dedicated to the patron saint of Bohemia sung every Sunday in the churches of the country- few months after the outbreak of the great war. Realising that the conflict would have brought the empire to an end, Suk put his invocation to the Saint into music and made a quartet; he asked God’s help “not to let our country and the future generations die”. It quickly became very popular and an orchestra adaptation followed which we will listen in the closing concert with a performance by southern Bohemia Philharmonic Orchestra.
Very Czech in its essence and feel is also the ‘music tale’ of Smetana’s life, which he made in quartet in E minor. And regarding the two pages of Dvořák: even in Americano, written on the other side of the ocean following the symphony of From the new world, it eventually emerges above any other thing the genuine bohemian nature.
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