Four Centuries of Great Music October 18, 2026 String Quartets from Around the World

FCGM-10-18-26-String Quartets from Around the World

Last month I had a show celebrating the American string quartet so I thought this month I would celebrate string quartets from around the world. Well maybe not  around the world with stops in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Great Britain

We open with Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s first string quartet.  Korngold composed his String Quartet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 16 between 1921 and 1923 when he was in his mid-twenties.   It received it’s premiere on January 8, 1924, in Vienna by the Rosé Quartet, to whom the piece is dedicated. It was published by  B. Schott's Söhne in 1924

The work has four distinct parts: [1, 2]
Allegro molto
Adagio, quasi Fantasia (Langsam, mit grossem Ausdruck)
Intermezzo (Ziemlich lebhaft, mit Grazie)
Finale (Allegretto amabile e comodo)

Richly romantic and expressive, reflecting the peak of Korngold’s early chamber output.   This was about 15 years before  he fled Austria to the United States and turned  his compositional skills toward Hollywood film scores.

Interesting fact is that the final movement features a line from Shakespeare's play As You Like It: "When birds do sing, Hey ding a ding, ding. Sweet lovers love the spring."

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 16 I. Allegro molto
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 16 II. Adagio quasi Fantasia
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 16 III. Intermezzo. Ziemlich lebhaft, mit Grazie
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 16 IV. Finale. Allegro amabile e comodo

Pacifica Quartet
The Korngold Collection
Cedille Records 

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music

Bedřich Smetana’s second and final quartet was written between 1882 and 1883 and received it’s first performances early in 1884 before the composer’s death in May of 1884.   The work was not published until 1889. 

Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet #2- 1. Allegro
Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet #2 - 2. Allegro Moderato
Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet #2 - 3. Allegro Non Più Moderato, Ma Agitato, E Con Fuoco
Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet #2 - Presto

Moyzes Quartet
Smetana: String Quartets #1 & 2
Naxos

Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and  he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers.[1] 

Béla Bartók composed his String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 17 between 1915 and 1917 during World War I.  It received its premiere on March 3, 1918, in Budapest by the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet, to whom the work is dedicated and published in 1920 by Universal Edition

The piece contains three movements that trace an arc resembling a classical tragedy:
I. Moderato: Written in a peaceful sonata form, opening with an atonal seventh-interval motif and ending in tranquility.

II. Allegro molto capriccioso: An animated, frantic, rondo blending Hungarian accents with North African Arabic rhythms collected during Bartók's ethnomusicological field research.

III. Lento: A brooding, intense, and rhythmically static ternary movement conveying suffering and a funereal atmosphere.

Bela Bartok: String Quartet #2, Op. 17, SZ 67 - 1. Moderato
Bela Bartok: String Quartet #2, Op. 17, SZ 67 - 2. Allegro Molto Capriccioso
Bela Bartok: String Quartet #2, Op. 17, SZ 67 - 3. Lento

Novak Quartet
Bartok: The 6 String Quartets
Philips Records

William Walton was an English composer whose career spanned over 50 years and is famous for both his classical  compositions  and his film music

Walton wrote the A minor quartet between 1944 and 1947. It was first given in a BBC radio broadcast live on the Third Programme on  May 4, 1947 and received its first public performance the following day in the BBC's concert hall in Broadcasting House.  The performers for both presentations were the Blech Quartet (Harry Blech and Lionel Bentley (violins), Keith Cummings (viola) and Douglas Cameron (cello)).  The score was first published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) in September 1947.

01Walton_ String Quartet in A minor - Allegro
01 Walton_ String Quartet in A minor - Presto
01 Walton_ String Quartet in A minor - Lento
01 Walton_ String Quartet in A minor - Allegro Molto

Emperor Quartet
Walton: The String Quartets
Black Box

We have a couple minutes left on the program so let e squeeze in Shostakovich: 2 Pieces for String Quartet: No. 2, Polka (The Age of Gold)
Borodin Quartet
Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 1, 8 & 14
Decca Classics