Zemlinsky, Janacek, Dvorak and Their Muses

[4th Floor]

Performance by Zemlinsky Quartet, illustrated talk by Nicholas Chong. Love, requited or otherwise, can spark the creation of great music. In 1865, Antonin Dvorak’s feelings for Josefina Cermakova inspired the song-cycle Cypresses. His love was unrequited, but years later he arranged some of the songs for string quartet, creating a set of exquisite miniatures. Leos Janacek was sixty-three when he fell for the much younger Kamila Stosslova; the String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters,” is the last work he completed, but it sounds like the music of a young man, overflowing with life and yearning. Alexander Zemlinsky’s later music explores his grief at losing Alma Schindler, but his First String Quartet—written shortly before they met— shows him in happier mood, unaware of the heartbreak to come.

Program

Zemlinsky: Quartet No. 1

Janacek: String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters”

Dvorak: Love Songs

Tickets: $45, available online at aspectfoundation.com.