LDV18

24 ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK _STRING QUARTETS Nos10 & 11 You’ve chosen to record the two quartets that precede the ‘American’ Quartet, nos.10 and 11, which are quite rarely played. Do they suffer from being overshadowed by their famous successor, or is there another reason for their relative rarity in the concert hall? In the composer’s time, these two works enjoyed genuine popular success, and not only in Bohemia. They were played all over Europe, and gained Dvořák the reputation of being one of the most important chamber music composers of his time. The last five quartets are in the repertory of the leading ensembles today. Obviously, the fame of the “American” Quartet, and its emblematic status, if only because it has a title, overshadows the other quartets, but when we play the Quartets nos.10 and 11, our public discovers them and enjoys them all the more. How would you describe the Quartet no.10 in E flat major? Do you see it as a wholly Czech, pastoral work? And does no.11, in its desire to go back to the Beethovenian model, echo the political tensions that Czech society was going through at that time? Václav Talich, the uncle of the founder of our quartet, Jan Talich Sr., perfectly defined the character of these two works, and so we’d prefer to reprint here the texts he wrote about them, preceded by more general remarks about the source of the composer’s inspiration.