The Smetana Quartet ( Czech : Smetanovo kvarteto ) was a Czech string quartet that was in existence from 1943 to 1989, although it was known as the Smetana Quartet only from 1945 onwards.
17-775: 1st violin 2nd violin Viola Cello The Smetana Quartet arose from the Quartet of the Czech Conservatory, which was founded in 1943 (during the Nazi occupation) in Prague by Antonín Kohout, the cellist. With Jaroslav Rybenský and Lubomír Kostecký as first and second violins, and Václav Neumann as violist, the group gave its first performance as the Smetana Quartet on 6 November 1945, at
34-538: A Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for a cpo recording of Esquisses Hébraïques: Clarinet Quintets on Jewish Themes , with Dieter Klöcker . Royal Danish Academy of Music The Royal Danish Academy of Music , or Royal Danish Conservatory of Music ( Danish : Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium ), in Copenhagen is the oldest professional institution of musical education in Denmark as well as
51-672: A duo with the Swedish cellist Mikael Ericsson in 1977. Ericsson had studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen , attended master-classes by Guy Fallot and Gregor Piatigorsky , and studied at the AMU in Prague with Josef Chuchro and Josef Vlach. He also has a recording career as a soloist. Karel Stadtherr, violinist, had performed with the Suk Chamber Orchestra (in contact with Josef Vlach) and
68-801: A number of prizes, including: an award for the best string quartet among the European competition at the International String Quartet Competition in Portsmouth, England, in 1985; the prize of the Czech Chamber Music Association in 1991; and the prize of the Czech Music Fund for a CD containing string quartets by Bedřich Smetana (" From My Life ") and Leoš Janáček (" Intimate Letters ") in 1992. In October 2000, they also won
85-711: The Martinů Quartet (1976), though the latter's members had been pupils of Professor Viktor Moučka, cellist of the Vlach Quartet . Vlach Quartet The Vlach Quartet ( Czech : Vlachovo kvarteto ) is the name of two consecutive classical string quartet musical ensembles , based in Prague , both of which were founded by members of the Vlach family. The original Vlach Quartet was founded by Josef Vlach [ cs ] in 1950 and wound up in 1975. In 1982
102-664: The Naxos label. Other recordings include works by Schubert , Haydn , John Fernström , and others, on the Naxos , Marco Polo , Bohemia Music and Panton labels. The Quartet has performed throughout Europe, including Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, and Luxembourg, and many of their concerts have been broadcast, for instance by the Bayerischer Rundfunk , the Südwestrundfunk, Danmarks Radio and Radio France. Czech Television has broadcast documentaries on both
119-494: The New Vlach Quartet ( Czech : Nové Vlachovo kvarteto ) was founded by his daughter Jana Vlachova, with guidance her father, and came to be known as the Vlach Quartet of Prague ( Czech : Vlachovo kvarteto Praha ), and is still active as a musical ensemble. Josef Vlach (Ratměřice, 8 June 1923 - Linköping, 17 October 1988) was a violinist, conductor and teacher in Prague. He shared the principal violin desk of
136-783: The Czech Chamber Orchestra (as it existed under Václav Talich ), with Jiri Novak, leader of the Smetana Quartet . In 1950 he founded the Vlach Quartet with members of the Orchestra. Over the next 25 years they produced interpretations of classical and Czech literature for string quartet, both in concerts and in recording, for which they had a contract with Supraphon Records . The original Vlach Quartet recordings include Beethoven op. 131, op. 18 nos. 1 & 6, op. 59 no. 1. In 1957 Josef Vlach also re-formed
153-616: The Czech Chamber Orchestra. The personnel of the original Vlach Quartet in the period 1950-1975 were: The New Vlach Quartet was founded in 1982 by Jana Vlachová, Josef's daughter, who had played in a string quartet from childhood under her father's guidance and won first prize in the Concertino Praga international competition aged 14. She graduated from studies with Marie Hlounová at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (AMU), chose to concentrate on chamber music, and formed
170-635: The Municipal Library in Prague. Neumann left to pursue conducting in 1947, at which point Rybenský went to the viola desk and Jiří Novák (who shared first violin desk with Josef Vlach, founder of the Vlach Quartet , under Vaclav Talich in the Czech Chamber Orchestra) came in as first violin. By 1949 the group had official connections with the Czech Philharmonic . The first foreign tour was in 1949, to Poland, and
187-577: The finest Czech quartet of its time, played the Czech repertoire from memory, giving these works a special intensity and intimacy. The Smetana Quartet made the third commercial digital recording ever made, Mozart 's K.421 and K.458 , in Tokyo April 24–26, 1972. They re-recorded the same repertoire ten years later in Prague . Antonín Kohout trained the Kocian Quartet (founded 1972) and
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#1732798629082204-460: The first recording was of the second quartet by Bedřich Smetana in 1950. Rybenský was obliged to retire after ill health in 1952, and was replaced by Milan Škampa . The performers were appointed professors at the Academy of Musical Arts in 1967. Of their many recordings, those made at that time for German Electrola are considered particularly fine. For many years this group, which has been called
221-550: The largest, with approximately 400 students. It was established in 1867 as Kjøbenhavns Musikkonservatorium by Niels Gade – who was also the first rector –, J.P.E. Hartmann and Holger Simon Paulli on the basis of a testamentary gift from the jeweler P.W. Moldenhauer, and with inspiration from the Leipzig Conservatory and a conservatory founded by Giuseppe Siboni in Copenhagen in 1827. Carl Nielsen
238-1041: The old and the new Vlach Quartets. They have also toured the United States, with an opening concert in New York City in July 2004. They had a Residency in 1997 in Gifu , Japan , and were broadcast by NHK , Japan's principal station. In 2000 they led courses in interpretation at the conservatory in Ingesund , Sweden. In 2004 the Vlach Quartet Prague was Quartet-in-Residence in Schengen, Luxembourg. The Quartet's main collaborations are with Maria Kliegel (cello), Jenö Jandó and Ivan Klánský (pianists), Eduard Brunner and Dieter Klöcker (clarinet) and Maximilian Mangold (guitar). The quartet has received
255-650: The range of the repertoire of the earlier Quartet, both in international scope and in the time-frame represented. They won the prize for best interpretation of a contemporary Czech work at the Czech String Quartet Competition in Kroměříž in 1983. Their performance and broadcasts focused both on the classics and on the Czech repertoire, including the works of Antonín Dvořák , Bedřich Smetana , Leoš Janáček , and Bohuslav Martinů . Beginning in 1995, they recorded all of Dvořák 's string quartets for
272-643: Was Concertmaster of the Prague Chamber Orchestra without Conductor. Petr Verner studied solo viola at the Prague Conservatory and at the AMU in Prague with Jiří Zika, Lubomír Malý, Milan Škampa and Jan Pěruška. They received guidance and mentoring from Josef Vlach, imparting an interpretative tradition from the school of Václav Talich , and underwent a course of training by the Melos Quartet of Stuttgart. They expanded
289-585: Was a teacher in the period 1916–1919 and the rector during the last year of his life. The academy was renamed to Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium in 1902 and became a national state institution in 1949. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is Protector of the institution. Originally located on H.C. Andersens Boulevard, it relocated into Radiohuset , the former headquarters of the Danish national radio broadcasting corporation DR , on 1 September 2008 and took over
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