string quartet No. 1
OPUS NUMBER | 2 |
BURGHAUSER CATALOGUE NUMBER | 8 |
COMPOSED | March 1862 |
PREMIERE - DATE AND PLACE | 6 January 1888, Prague |
PREMIERE - PERFORMER(S) | Karel Ondricek, Jan Pelikan, Petr Mares, Alois Neruda |
FIRST EDITION | Hudebni matice Umelecke besedy, 1948, Prague |
MAIN KEY | A major |
PARTS / MOVEMENTS |
1. Andante. Allegro
2. Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato
3. Allegro scherzando
4. Allegro animato
|
DURATION | approx 33 min. |
![]() |
premiere and subsequent performancesLike many of Dvorak’s works from his young days, this one lay forgotten for a long period. Dvorak traded his score with his friend Frantisek Huspauer for unidentified printed scores of works by Beethoven. It wasn’t until many years later, when Dvorak was planning to have some of his early works performed, that he asked for his manuscript back (again an exchange: on this occasion, Huspauer received from Dvorak the manuscript of the original piano version of Stabat mater). Dvorak revised the quartet, shortened it, and had it included on the programme for a concert organised by the artists’ association Umelecka beseda in the Rudolfinum on 6 January 1888. At the time, Josef Bohuslav Foerster wrote of his impression of the work in Narodni listy: “This quartet is the product of a fresh imagination and confidence in the use of musical form; however, in a few places, we did sense the diffidence of the juvenile composer.” This was the only opportunity Dvorak had to hear his work, for the next performance took place almost thirty years later, on 29 October 1917 in Obecni dum in Prague. The quartet wasn’t published until 1948. |