The Smetana Quartet ( cs, Smetanovo kvarteto) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

that was in existence from 1945 to 1989.

Personnel

1st violin *

Václav Neumann Václav Neumann (29 October 1920 – 2 September 1995) was a Czech conductor, violinist, violist, and opera director. Life and career Neumann was born in Prague, where he studied at the Prague Conservatory with Josef Micka (violin), and ...

(1920-1995), from 1943 to 1945 * Jaroslav Rybenský, from 1945 to 1947 * Jiří Novák (1924-2010), since 1947 2nd violin * Lubomír Kostecký (1922-2003) Viola * Jiří Neumann, from 1943 to 1945 *

, from 1945 to 1947 * Jaroslav Rybenský, from 1947 to 1956 *

Milan Škampa Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

(1928-2018), since 1956 Cello * Antonín Kohout (1919-2013)

Origins and activities

The Smetana Quartet arose from the Quartet of the Czech Conservatory, which was founded in 1943 (during the Nazi occupation) in Prague by Antonín Kohout, the cellist. With Jaroslav Rybenský and Lubomír Kostecký as first and second violins, and

as violist, the group gave its first performance as the Smetana Quartet on 6 November 1945, at the Municipal Library in Prague. Neumann left to pursue conducting in 1947, at which point Rybenský went to the viola desk and Jiří Novák (who shared first violin desk with Josef Vlach, founder of the Vlach Quartet, under Vaclav Talich in the Czech Chamber Orchestra) came in as first violin. By 1949 the group had official connections with the

Czech Philharmonic The Česká filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic) is a symphony orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra's principal concert venue is the Rudolfinum. History The name "Czech Philharmonic Orchestra" appeared for the first time in 1894, as the title ...

. The first foreign tour was in 1949, to Poland, and the first recording was of a quartet by

Bedřich Smetana Bedřich Smetana ( , ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival." He has been regarded i ...

in 1950. Rybenský was obliged to retire after ill health in 1952, and was replaced by

. The performers were appointed professors at the Academy of Musical Arts in 1967. Of their many recordings, those made at that time for German Electrola are considered particularly fine. For many years this group, which has been called the finest Czech quartet of its time, played the Czech repertoire from memory, giving these works a special intensity and intimacy. The Smetana Quartet made the third commercial

digital recording In digital recording, an audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is saved to a storage de ...

ever made,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's K.421 and K.458, in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

April 24–26, 1972. They rerecorded the same repertoire ten years later in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. Antonín Kohout trained the Kocian Quartet (founded 1972) and the Martinů Quartet (1976),Martinů Quartet webpage . though the latter's members had been pupils of Professor Viktor Moučka, cellist of the Vlach Quartet.

External links

DiscographyáThe Smetana Quartet website
- rich photogallery, repertoire, records

Notes and references

;Notes ;Bibliography *Vladimír Šefl, ''Smetanovo Kvarteto'' (Supraphon, 1974) *Jirǐ Berkovec, ''The Smetana Quartet'' (Orbis 1956) {{Authority control Czech string quartets Musical groups established in 1945