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The Martinů Quartet plays Dvořák, Janáček and Škroup: concert of Czech chamber music masterpieces
11 MAY 2012 AT 7 PM, ST MARY MAGDALENE CHURCH, HOLLOWAY ROAD, LONDON N7 8LT. Launching their latest CD of Antonín Dvořák´s String Quartets and celebrating the Czech Open 2012, the Czech cultural season in Islington, the acclaimed Martinů Quartet offers an exciting programme of Czech music featuring much loved works by Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and František Škroup. The Martinů Quartet specialises in Czech chamber music and is praised particularly for their passion in interpreting the classical repertoire of their country. Admission: £10 (£7 concs.). Tickets are available at http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=8114 and at the door.
Admission: £10 (£7 concs.)
Tickets: http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=8114
and at the door
Martinu Quartet
Lubomír Havlák, 1st Violin
Libor Kaňka, 2nd Violin
Zbyněk
Paďourek, Viola
Jitka Vlašánková, Cello
The Martinů Quartet, originally the Havlák
Quartet, was formed in 1976 by the then students of the Prague Conservatoire,
inspired by and modelled on such string quartets as the Vlach and the Smetana.
They put favourable circumstances to good use by intensive practice and study of
the quartet repertoire, resulting in seven prizes at important international
competitions. They included prizes at the ARD Munich, Evian (France), Yehudi
Menuhin (Portsmouth, Britain) and The Prague Spring competitions.
These
successes stood at the start-line of the Quartet’s brilliant international
career, placing it firmly in the internationally respected Czech string-quartet
tradition.
The original Havlák Quartet changed its name in 1985 as a
token of its commitment to promote the work of one of the great masters of Czech
music, Bohuslav Martinů. Their efforts have been rewarded by a MIDEM prize in
Cannes in 2004 for the best CD of the year in the chamber music/solo category –
the CD being the second of three NAXOS CDs with Martinů’s seven quartets and
other chamber compositions.
Although the main weight of its repertoire is
centred on the music of the world’s great composers, the Quartet takes pleasure
in seeking out neglected works and in giving first performances of pieces by
contemporary composers. It has received an MW Classical Music Web’s “CD of the
Month’s” award for its recording of works by Sylvie Bodorová (Terezín Ghetto
Requiem) and Ronald Stevenson. It is engaged on a long-term project of
performing and recording the complete quartet output of the leading Czech
composer resident in the USA, Tomáš Svoboda.
Apart from its busy concert
schedule which takes in prestigious podiums at home and abroad, the Martinů
Quartet plays on the Czech Radio, as it has done on the BBC, Radio France, ARD
and ORF.
Programme:
František Škroup (1801-1862):
String Quartet No.3 in G major, op.29
Allegro
Andante innocente
Scherzo. Allegro vivace
Allegro
appassionato
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928): String Quartet No. 1 „Kreutzer
Sonata“
Adagio. Con moto
Con moto
Con moto
Con moto
Interval
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) : String Quartet in G major,
op.106
Allegro moderato
Adagio ma non troppo
Molto
vivace
Finale – Andante sostenuto
This event is supported by the Dvorak Society.