The Vlach Quartet ( cs, Vlachovo kvarteto) is the name of two consecutive classical

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 ...

musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

s, based 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 ...

, both of which were founded by members of the Vlach family. The original Vlach Quartet was founded by in 1950 and wound up in 1975. In 1982 the New Vlach Quartet ( cs, Nové Vlachovo kvarteto) was founded by his daughter Jana Vlachova, with guidance her father, and came to be known as the Vlach Quartet of Prague ( cs, Vlachovo kvarteto Praha), and is still active as a musical ensemble.

Vlach Quartet

Josef Vlach (Ratměřice, 8 June 1923 - Linköping, 17 October 1988) was a violinist, conductor and teacher in Prague. He shared the principal violin desk of the Czech Chamber Orchestra (as it existed under

Václav Talich Václav Talich (; 28 May 1883, Kroměříž – 16 March 1961, Beroun) was a Czech violinist and later a musical pedagogue. He is remembered today as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the object of countless reissues of his man ...

), with Jiri Novak, leader of the

Smetana Quartet The Smetana Quartet ( cs, Smetanovo kvarteto) was a Czech string quartet that was in existence from 1945 to 1989. Personnel 1st violin * Václav Neumann (1920-1995), from 1943 to 1945 * Jaroslav Rybenský, from 1945 to 1947 * Jiří Novák (1924 ...

. In 1950 he founded the Vlach Quartet with members of the Orchestra. Over the next 25 years they produced interpretations of classical and Czech literature for string quartet, both in concerts and in recording, for which they had a contract with

Supraphon Records Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, oriented mainly towards publishing classical music and popular music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers. History The Supraphon name was first registered as a trademark in 1932. T ...

. The original Vlach Quartet recordings include Beethoven op. 131, op. 18 nos. 1 & 6, op. 59 no. 1. In 1957 Josef Vlach also re-formed the Czech Chamber Orchestra.

Personnel

The personnel of the original Vlach Quartet in the period 1950-1975 were: *1st violin - *2nd violin -

Václav Snítil Václav Snítil (1 March 1928, in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic – 19 July 2015, in Prague) was a Czech violinist and music educator. He first studied with his teacher being Czech violinist Jaroslav Kocián for 8 years from 1942 to 1950, and co ...

*Viola **Soběslav Soukup (1948–1952) **Jaroslav Motlík (1952–1954) **Josef Koďousek (1954–1975) **Jiří Hanzl (from 1970) *Cello - Viktor Moučka

The New Vlach Quartet/Vlach Quartet Prague

The New Vlach Quartet was founded in 1982 by Jana Vlachová, Josef's daughter, who had played in a string quartet from childhood under her father's guidance and won first prize in the Concertino Praga international competition aged 14. She graduated from studies with Marie Hlounová at the

Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( cs, Akademie múzických umění v Praze, AMU) is a university in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, specialising in the study of music, dance, drama, film, television and multi-media. It is the larg ...

(AMU), chose to concentrate on chamber music, and formed a duo with the Swedish cellist Mikael Ericsson in 1977. Ericsson had studied at the

Royal Danish Academy of Music The Royal Danish Academy of Music, or Royal Danish Conservatory of Music ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium), in Copenhagen is the oldest professional institution of musical education in Denmark as well as the largest, with approxima ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, attended master-classes by

Guy Fallot Guy Fallot (1927 – 25 July 2018) was a French cellist born in Nancy. Biography Guy Fallot's father, Paul Fallot – a geologist and professor at the Collège de France – was also a great music lover and played the violin. The mother of Guy ...

and

Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky (, ''Grigoriy Pavlovich Pyatigorskiy''; August 6, 1976) was a Russian Empire-born American cellist. Biography Early life Gregor Piatigorsky was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. As a child, ...

, and studied at the AMU in Prague with Josef Chuchro and Josef Vlach. He also has a recording career as a soloist. Karel Stadtherr, violinist, had performed with the

Suk Chamber Orchestra The Suk Chamber Orchestra (Czech: Sukův komorní orchestr) is a classical chamber orchestra named after the composer Josef Suk. It was founded by the violinist Josef Suk in 1974, on the centenary of his grandfather, the composer Josef Suk. Th ...

(in contact with Josef Vlach) and was

Concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...

of the Prague Chamber Orchestra without Conductor. Petr Verner studied solo viola at the

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...

and at the AMU in Prague with Jiří Zika, Lubomír Malý, Milan Škampa and Jan Pěruška. They received guidance and mentoring from Josef Vlach, imparting an interpretative tradition from the school of

, and underwent a course of training by the

Melos Quartet The Melos Quartet was a much-recorded, Stuttgart-based string quartet active from 1965 until 2005, when its first violin died. It also went by the name Melos Quartett Stuttgart, partly to distinguish itself from the equally prominent chamber group ...

of Stuttgart. They expanded the range of the repertoire of the earlier Quartet, both in international scope and in the time-frame represented. They won the prize for best interpretation of a contemporary Czech work at the Czech String Quartet Competition in

Kroměříž Kroměříž (; german: Kremsier) is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is known for the Kroměříž Castle with castle gardens, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town centre with the c ...

in 1983. Their performance and broadcasts focused both on the classics and on the Czech repertoire, including the works of

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

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 ...

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...

, and

Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He bec ...

. Beginning in 1995, they recorded all of Dvořák's string quartets for the

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...

label. Other recordings include works by

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...

John Fernström John Fernström (6 December 1897 – 19 October 1961) was a Swedish composer. Fernström was born in Yichang, China, where he also spent most part of the first ten years of his life at the mission his father directed, except for a couple of years ...

, and others, on the

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

, Bohemia Music and Panton labels. The Quartet has performed throughout Europe, including Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, and Luxembourg, and many of their concerts have been broadcast, for instance by the

Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...

, the Südwestrundfunk, Danmarks Radio and Radio France. Czech Television has broadcast documentaries on both the old and the new Vlach Quartets. They have also toured the United States, with an opening concert in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in July 2004. They had a Residency in 1997 in

Gifu is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and were broadcast by

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

, Japan's principal station. In 2000 they led courses in interpretation at the conservatory in Ingesund, Sweden. In 2004 the Vlach Quartet Prague was Quartet-in-Residence in Schengen, Luxembourg. The Quartet's main collaborations are with

Maria Kliegel Maria Kliegel (born 14 November 1952) is a German cellist. Professional career Kliegel was born in Dillenburg, Hesse. She studied under Janos Starker starting at the age of 19. She won first prize at the American College Competition, First Germ ...

(cello), Jenö Jandó and

Ivan Klánský Ivan Klánský (born 1948) is a Czech pianist. He studied at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with František Rauch (1968-1973) and at the Prague Conservatory with Valentina Kameníková (1963-1968). He is laureate of some of the most prestig ...

(pianists),

Eduard Brunner Eduard Brunner (14 July 1939 – 27 April 2017) was a classical music, classical clarinetist. He began his musical education in Basel (Switzerland) where he was born, continuing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire with Louis Cahuzac. For thi ...

and

Dieter Klöcker Dieter Klöcker (13 April 1936, Wuppertal – 21 May 2011, Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German clarinetist known for rediscovering many forgotten composers of the 18th century. Specifically forgotten music of the clarinet. From 1975 to 2002, Kl ...

(clarinet) and Maximilian Mangold (guitar). The quartet has received a number of prizes, including: an award for the best string quartet among the European competition at the International String Quartet Competition in Portsmouth, England, in 1985; the prize of the Czech Chamber Music Association in 1991; and the prize of the Czech Music Fund for a CD containing string quartets by

From My Life String Quartet No. 1 (''"From My Life"'', cs, "Z mého života") in E minor, written in 1876, is a four-movement chamber composition by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. It is an autobiographical work with nationalistic elements and was published i ...

") and

(" Intimate Letters") in 1992. In October 2000, they also won a Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for a cpo recording of ''Esquisses Hébraïques: Clarinet Quintets on Jewish Themes'', with

Personnel

*1st violin - Jana Vlachová *2nd violin **Ondřej Kukal (with New Vlach Quartet in recordings of Arriaga quartets 1–3) **Karel Stadtherr *Viola **Peter Verner (1985–2005) **Georg Haag (2006–2009 or 2010) **Jiří Kabát (since 2010) *Cello - Mikael Ericsson

Notes and references

External links

The Vlach Quartet Prague web site
(Internet Archive)

{{authority control Czech classical musicians Czech string quartets