String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor

Over the space of a few months in 1874 Bedřich Smetana suffered severe hearing loss. He retreated from Prague into the peace of the countryside, where between October and December 1876 he composed a string quartet in E minor. First performed in private in 1878 (with Dvořák on viola), the quartet received its public premiere in Prague on 28 March 1879. “I did not set out to write a quartet according to recipe or custom in the usual forms,” said Smetana. “My intention was to paint a tone-picture of my life.” So, in his own words, “The first movement depicts my youthful leanings toward art…and also a kind of warning of my future misfortune.” Some listeners have heard the viola’s heroic opening solo as a kind of Fate motif. In the second movement, “A quasi-polka brings to mind the joyful days of youth when I composed dance music”, while “the slow movement expresses my first love for the girl who later became my wife.” And in the finale, Smetana describes “the discovery that I could express national ideas in music, and my joy in following this path until it was checked by my deafness.” A jaunty Slavonic dance breaks off, and the violin plays a piercing high E: one of the most chilling—and honest—moments in all Romantic chamber music.