Prazak Quartet – Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2, From my Homeland (1999-03-01) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Prazak Quartet – Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2, From my Homeland (1999-03-01)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:24 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Praga Digitals

Classical in the respect for established forms, romantic in its clearly autobiographical nature, the chamber music by Bedřich Smetana is not plentiful, especially when compared to the output of his younger, immediate successor, Antonín Dvořàk. His two quartets form essentially chapters of a diary written when the overtaxed composer was suffering from increasingly severe deafness. However Smetana compels recognition as a major composer in a genre theoretically not overly propitious to personal outpourings; he showed innate taste for clarity, concision, transparency of language maintaining that rare duality between learned, refined writing and a profoundly human message.

Awards: Choc by Le Monde de la Musique, Recommended by Répertoire, Recommended by Classica, 5 by Diapason, BBC Music Magazine

Tracklist:

1-01. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor, JB 1:105 “From My Life”: I. Allegro vivo appassionato (07:31)
1-02. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor, JB 1:105 “From My Life”: II. Allegro moderato alla Polka (05:23)
1-03. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor, JB 1:105 “From My Life”: III. Largo sostenuto (08:48)
1-04. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor, JB 1:105 “From My Life”: IV. Vivace (05:59)
1-05. Václav Remeš – From the Homeland, JB 1:118: I. Moderato (04:58)
1-06. Václav Remeš – From the Homeland, JB 1:118: II. Andantino. Moderato. Allegro vivo. Moderato assai, Presto (07:11)
1-07. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 2 in D Minor, JB 1:124: I. Allegro (05:23)
1-08. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 2 in D Minor, JB 1:124: II. Allegro moderato (05:51)
1-09. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 2 in D Minor, JB 1:124: III. Allegro non più moderato, ma agitato e con fuoco (04:42)
1-10. Prazak Quartet – String Quartet No. 2 in D Minor, JB 1:124: IV. Presto. Allegro (02:34)

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