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Bohuslav Martin​ů​: String Quartet No. 7, Oboe Quartet, Clarinet Quartet, Mazurka​-​Notturno, Nonetto

by Pražák Quartet, Czech Nonet

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1.
String Quartet No. 7, H. 314 "Concerto da camera" I. Poco allegro 07:04
2.
String Quartet No. 7, H. 314 "Concerto da camera" II. Andante 07:44
3.
String Quartet No. 7, H. 314 "Concerto da camera" III. Allegro vivo 06:04
4.
Quartet for Clarinet, French horn, Cello and Side-drum, H. 139 I. Allegro molto 03:24
5.
Quartet for Clarinet, French horn, Cello and Side-drum, H. 139 II. Poco andante 05:44
6.
Quartet for Clarinet, French horn, Cello and Side-drum, H. 139 III. Allegretto 02:42
7.
Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Cello and Piano, H. 315 I. Moderato poco allegro 05:04
8.
Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Cello and Piano, H. 315 II. Adagio - Andante (poco moderato) 03:11
9.
Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Cello and Piano, H. 315 III. Poco allegro 03:26
10.
Mazurka-Notturno for Oboe, Two Violins and Cello, H. 325 06:52
11.
Nonetto in F Major, H. 374 I. Allegro 05:10
12.
Nonetto in F Major, H. 374 II. Andante 05:28
13.
Nonetto in F Major, H. 374 III. Allegretto 05:32

about

"In 1923, Bohuslav Martinů left Prague and moved to Paris. The new young member of the School of Paris very readily adapted himself to the cultural life between the two world wars, although he enjoyed frequenting the milieux of avant-garde theatre and painters, more than that of music. Many of the works were written in record time for instrumentalist friend or artists passing through Paris. To offer a manuscript of a newly written piece was often a way of thanking a host, or of paying court to someone.
His first published Parisian work was the ‘Kvartet s bubínkem’, the Quartet for clarinet, horn, cello and small drum that gives the lion’s share to the horn, the poet and hero of this instrumental playet written under the influence of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat.
It was in New York, on 24 June 1947 that he completed his String Quartet No. 7, subtitled ‘Concerto da camera’, without, however, expressely anticipating its symphonic character. He seems to want to salute with this work his native country by composing a sort of divertimento in the traditional, almost romantic style - in the Dvorakian sense of the term.
The Quartet for oboe, violin, cello and piano dates from the autumn of the same year. All three of the movements treat the oboe as a soloist, while the strings and piano trio acts as an accompaniment in a kind of ‘concertino’. We have to wait until the Andante for the deep emotional crack at the core of this luminous and virtuosic divertimento.
The Mazurka-Nocturne was created in October 1949; more pastoral than nocturnal, and then more frankly melancholy, it was commissioned for the centenary of Chopin’s death.
Finally, in the Nonet in F major, in less than twenty minutes, Martinů seems to idealize both his Czech heritage and the neo-impressionism that colors his last compositions. The work was premiered on 27 July 1959 at the Salzburg Festival by its dedicatees, the Czech Nonet, just a few weeks before the author’s death on 28 August 28 in Liestal, near Basel.

Awards: 4* by Le Monde de la Musique, 5 by Diapason, 9 by Répertoire

“The Pražáks, in particular, transfigure the ordered craftsmanship of the Concerto da camera, imbued with clarity, rightfully underscoring the accents close to the Romantic models as much as the intimate Czech roots, roots that are equally intense and nostalgic in the Nonet, here interpreted with a sweeping, sunny hymn-like force.” (Le Monde de la Musique, July 2001)"

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250 097

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released January 1, 1996

Pražák Quartet (Ensemble)
Czech Nonet (Ensemble)

Digital studio recordings, Prague : November 5, December 12, 1995, January 18, 1996

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The Pražák Quartet, one of today´s leading string quartets, was founded in 1972 by students at the Prague Conservatory.

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