String Quartet No. 2 in D major, Op. 35

II. Fantasia. Allegro passionato, ma non troppo, presto – Quasi scherzo. Allegretto moderato, ben ritmico


  • Recorded: 10th March 2024
  • Record Place: Evangelical Church At Jacob´s Ladder, Prague
  • First Release: 2025
  • (P) 2025 SUPRAPHON a.s.

Artists

  • music by: Vítězslav Novák
  • musical group: Stamic Quartet

Album

Stamic Quartet

Novák: Complete String Quartets

Catalogue Number: SU 4367-2
Published: 4th July 2025
First release: SUPRAPHON 2025
Genre: Chamber Music
Format: 1 CD
Vítězslav Novák (1870-1949) – String Quartet No. 1 in G major, Op. 22 (1899). String Quartet No. 2 in D major, Op. 35 (1905). String Quartet No. 3 in G major, Op. 66 (1938)

Stamic Quartet: Jindřich Pazdera – 1st violin, Josef Kekula – 2nd violin, Jan Pěruška – viola, Petr Hejný – cello

For an impressive forty years, the Stamic Quartet (established in 1985) have been enjoying countless international successes both in concert performances and studio recordings. Just during the last fifteen years, the Supraphon label has released albums of the ensemble featuring the first recordings of the complete works for string quartet by J. B. Foerster (2010), Sofia Gubaidulina (2012), and Karel Kovařovic (2019). For the Stamic Quartet’s fortieth anniversary, they have recorded this complete set of Vítězslav Novák’s quartets, which also definitely completes the ensemble’s remarkable list of recordings.
Nearly forty years separate the First Quartet by Dvořák’s 29-year-old pupil, inspired by the countryside of Moravia and Slovakia and by folk music, from the Third Quartet, with its anxious premonitions of war. The works demonstrate a considerable stylistic shift in the composer’s musical language. From the foundations of the musical traditions of Romanticism, through inspiration from Moravian and Slovak folklore, Novák arrived at a personal style with integral components including the church modes, the sonic world of Impressionism, a polyphonic sensibility for musical structure (as is clear from the extensive fugue of the Second Quartet), and rhythmic richness. The experienced Stamic Quartet is the first ensemble to record Novák’s complete quartets, and it has done so with commitment that would be the envy of many young ensembles.

Novák’s complete quartets for the first time in the anointed hands of the Stamic Quartet

Vítězslav Novák
String Quartet No. 1 in G major, Op. 22
1. I. Allegro moderato 12:20
2. II. Scherzo. Allegro comodo 05:37
3. III. Andante mesto - Allegro ben ritmico 10:59
Vítězslav Novák
String Quartet No. 2 in D major, Op. 35
4. I. Fuga. Largo misterioso 11:32
5. II. Fantasia. Allegro passionato, ma non troppo, presto – Quasi scherzo. Allegretto moderato, ben ritmico 15:40
Vítězslav Novák
String Quartet No. 3 in G major, Op. 66
6. I. Allegro risoluto 10:33
7. II. Lento doloroso 14:40