Leoš JanáčekLeoš Janáček , was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style...
’s
String Quartet No. 1., "Kreutzer Sonata", was written in a very short space of time, between 13 and 28 October 1923, at a time of great creative concentration. The work was revised by the composer in the autograph from 30 October to 7 November 1923. Composition was inspired by Tolstoy’s novella
The Kreutzer SonataThe Kreutzer Sonata is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1889 and promptly censored by the Russian authorities. The work is an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence and an in-depth first-person description of jealous rage...
. Janáček nonetheless considered setting the novel to music much earlier (in 1908 - 1909 he composed a Piano Trio in three movements, now lost, likewise inspired by the
The Kreutzer Sonata).
Surviving fragments of the Trio suggest that it was quite similar to the surviving quartet, and reconstructions as a piano trio have been performed.
The première of the new work was given on 17 October 1924 by the Czech Quartet at a concert of the
Spolek pro moderní hudbu (Contemporary Music Society) at the Mozarteum in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
.
The composition was published as a pocket score in April 1925 by
Hudební matice.
"I was imagining a poor woman, tormented and run down, just like the one the Russian writer Tolstoy describes in his Kreutzer Sonata", Janáček confided in one of his letters to his young friend Kamila Stösslová.
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Leoš JanáčekLeoš Janáček , was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style...
’s
String Quartet No. 1., "Kreutzer Sonata", was written in a very short space of time, between 13 and 28 October 1923, at a time of great creative concentration. The work was revised by the composer in the autograph from 30 October to 7 November 1923. Composition was inspired by Tolstoy’s novella
The Kreutzer SonataThe Kreutzer Sonata is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1889 and promptly censored by the Russian authorities. The work is an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence and an in-depth first-person description of jealous rage...
. Janáček nonetheless considered setting the novel to music much earlier (in 1908 - 1909 he composed a Piano Trio in three movements, now lost, likewise inspired by the
The Kreutzer Sonata).
Surviving fragments of the Trio suggest that it was quite similar to the surviving quartet, and reconstructions as a piano trio have been performed.
The première of the new work was given on 17 October 1924 by the Czech Quartet at a concert of the
Spolek pro moderní hudbu (Contemporary Music Society) at the Mozarteum in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
.
The composition was published as a pocket score in April 1925 by
Hudební matice.
Structure and style
"I was imagining a poor woman, tormented and run down, just like the one the Russian writer Tolstoy describes in his Kreutzer Sonata", Janáček confided in one of his letters to his young friend Kamila Stösslová. In the music of the quartet is depicted psychological drama containing moments of conflict as well as emotional outbursts, passionate work rush towards catharsis and to final climax.
The composition consists of four parts:
- 1. Adagio - Con moto
- 2. Con moto
- 3. Con moto -Vivo - Andante
- 4. Con moto - Adagio
The thematic idea central to the whole work is very similar to the theme of the composer's
Danube symphony (1923 - 25). Using a principle of thematic montage, the quartet almost abandons the fields of traditional
harmonyIn music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches, or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
,
homophonyIn music, homophony In music, homophony In music, homophony is a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony, the relationship between them creating chords...
and
counterpointIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent. It has been most commonly identified in Western music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
and instead makes free with the varied sonic factors typical of Janáček, including his 'trademark' modal inflections .
Recordings
- Alban Berg Quartet
- Janáček Quartet (Supraphon Archiv SU 3460-2)
- Juilliard String Quartet (Sony SK66840)
- Martinů Quartet (ArcoDiva UP 0036-2131)
- Melos Quartet (Harmonia Mundi HMG 501380)
- Panocha Quartet
The Panocha Quartet in an internationally renowned Czech string quartet whose playing is admired for its fine tone, stylistic sensitivity, technical address and polish. It was formed at the Prague Conservatory in 1968 from a trio consisting of Jiří Panocha , Jaroslav Hlůzě , and Jaroslav Kulhan...
(Supraphon SU 3906-2)
- Pavel Haas Quartet (Supraphon SU 3922-2)
- Pražák Quartet (Praga PRD 250108) (1997)
- Smetana Quartet
- Škampa Quartet (Supraphon SU 3486-2131)
- Vlach Quartet Prague (Naxos 8.553895)
- Britten Quartet (EMI Classic B00004UZ9L 1993)
- Hagen Quartet