ZEMLINSKY, JANACEK, DVORAK and their muses

October 16 | Bohemian National Hall

Zemlinsky Quartet

Illustrated talk by Nicholas Chong

Zemlinsky — Quartet No. 1
Janáček — String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters” 
Dvořák — Love Songs   

Love, requited or otherwise, can spark the creation of great music. In 1865, Antonín Dvořák’s feelings for Josefína Čermáková inspired the song-cycle Cypresses. His love was unrequited, but years later he arranged some of the songs for string quartet, creating a set of exquisite miniatures. Leoš Janáček was sixty-three when he fell for the much younger Kamila Stösslová; the String Quartet No. 2, ‘Intimate Letters’, is the last work he completed, but sounds like the music of a young man, overflowing with life and yearning. Alexander Zemlinsky’s later music explores his grief at losing Alma Schindler, but his First String Quartet – written shortly before they met – shows him in happier mood, unaware of the heartbreak to come.