Martinů B. String Quartets Nos.1-7. / Panocha Quartet (3CD)

CD 1

Bohuslav Martinů - String Quartet No. 1, H. 117 00:36:01

1. Moderato. Allegro ma non troppo 00:08:27

2. Andante moderato 00:06:07

3. Allegro non troppo 00:09:07

4. Allegro con brio 00:12:03

Bohuslav Martinů - String Quartet No. 2, H. 150 00:19:35

5. Moderato-Andante. Allegro vivace 00:07:09

6. Andante 00:05:54

7. Allegro 00:06:17

CD 2

Bohuslav Martinů - String Quartet No. 3, H. 183 00:11:59

1. Allegro 00:03:56

2. Andante 00:04:39

3. Vivo 00:03:15

Bohuslav Martinů - String Quartet No. 4, H. 256 00:19:53

4. Allegro poco moderato 00:06:01

5. Allegro scherzando 00:03:48

6. Adagio 00:05:27

7. Allegro 00:04:22

Bohuslav Martinů - String Quartet No. 5, H. 268 00:27:09

8. Allegro ma non troppo 00:06:16

9. Adagio 00:06:45

10. Allegro vivo 00:05:30

11. Lento - Allegro - Moderato 00:08:22

CD 3

Bohuslav Martinů - String Quartet No. 6, H. 312 00:22:40

1. Allegro moderato 00:06:54

2. Andante 00:07:25

3. Allegro 00:08:07

Bohuslav Martinů - String Quartet No. 7 (Concerto da camera), H. 314 00:21:56

4. Poco allegro 00:07:18

5. Andante 00:08:26

6. Allegro vivo 00:06:02

Panocha Quartet (Jiří Panocha, Pavel Zejfart, Miroslav Sehnoutka, Jaroslav Kulhan)

This complete collection of Bohuslav Martinů's string quartets was recorded in the years 1979-1983, at the peak of the Panocha Quartet's career. Martinů's quartets were written over the entire span of his life, and each of them is a world unto itself. The Impressionistic "French" Quartet, and the Quartet No. 4 (Paris, 1937) were written in the period between theWorld Wars. Martinů's unique compositional identity appears for the first time, however, in the Quartet No. 2 (1925). The Quartet No. 5 and Janáček's Intimate Letters have much in common, including their romantic dimension and their passion born of an inner pressure. After the Quartet No. 6 (1946), which in a way parallels Dvořák's work during his soujourn in America, Martinů brings his quartet work to a climax with his seventh piece, the Concerto da camera, a miniature full of inner contentment, as if the composer had found time for inner contemplation andmeditation in this favorite chamber composition.

(Supraphon 1990)