Such a beautiful piece of music, one of my favourites in string quartet literature, and a wonderfull, joyous performance, thanks for putting this out here on youtube!
I know little about string playing but am an experienced listener. This seems to me an exceptional performance of a marvelous work. The four play as one yet each has his/her own individuality when required as in the arresting opening viola solo. They play as if the composition is happening in the moment - no sense of rehearsed notes getting in the way. And the work itself is a masterpiece crowned by that riveting ending with the penetrating high violin note symbolising Smetana's approaching deafness and his subsequent dealng with it, all beaufifully understanding. Is it mere accident that the 1st violin motif immediately following that high note is a "quotation" from the funeral march of Beethoven's Eroica?
Oh wow! such fire and passion! You guys kept on getting stronger and more attuned to each other the whole work kept going on. What an absolute gem. the 4th movement is pure gold dust. I shall see you next time you’re at wigmore. this is one of my most cherished works. you should be well proud! bloody well done 👏👏
I never can't decide whether I like the original or Szell's orchestration better. It just works so well in both iterations. You certainly play it with the same intensity that Szell conducted this with in his own recording.
Such superb cohesion between all players. Bravi tutti. One hears how mature and confident Smetana was by the time he composed this quartet. (In comparison to his opera "The Bartered Bride", only ten years earlier, for example)
