Where do I come from, what are my roots? As part of our season’s focus on identities, the composers in this programme provide very different answers: Béla Bartók’s Second String Quartet is inspired both by the sound language of Expressionism and by the rhythms and melodies of Slavic folk music. Bedřich Smetana professes his love for his Czech homeland in his autobiographical string quartet “From My Life”. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in turn, shows in his B flat major quartet what he learned in this genre from his fatherly friend Joseph Haydn.
Simon Roturier violin
Marlene Ito violin
Naoko Shimizu viola
Bruno Delepelaire cello
Béla Bartók
String Quartet No. 2, Sz 67
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quartet in B flat major, K. 458 “The Hunt”
Bedřich Smetana
String Quartet No. 1 in E minor “From My Life”