Karel Kovařovic: The Complete String Quartets

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Given that Kovařovic was primarily known as an opera conductor, it’s perhaps no small wonder that there’s an almost vocal quality to the numerous memorable melodies in these immediately appealing... — Katherine Cooper, Presto Music, June 2019 More…

Release Date: 28th Jun 2019
Catalogue No: SU42672
Label: Supraphon
Length: 80 minutes

Presto Editor's Choice

June 2019
Presto Recording of the Week

12th July 2019
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2019

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Kovarovic: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor

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Stamic Quartet

I. Allegro moderato

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II. Scherzo. Presto

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III. Andante con variazioni

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IV. Allegro non troppo

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Kovarovic: String Quartet No. 1 in D major

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Stamic Quartet

I. Allegro moderato

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II. Andante

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III. Scherzo. Allegro. Trio

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IV. Finale. Allegro con fuoco

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Kovarovic: String Quartet No. 3 in G major (unfinished)

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$4.80

Stamic Quartet

I. Allegro moderato

$1.05

$1.35

$1.60

II. Scherzo. Presto

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$1.35

$1.60

III. Adagio

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Recording of the Week, Karel Kovařovic's complete string quartets from the Stamic Quartet

12th July 2019

The Prague-based quartet give the world premiere recordings of three works by the Czech composer and conductor, best known for his work as music director of the National Theatre Prague.

The Stamic Quartet’s repertoire ranges from Baroque to 21st–century music (the highly acclaimed album of Sofia Gubaidulina’s complete quartets, Supraphon 2012), yet the ensemble mainly focus on works dating from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Following the revelatory premiere recording of Josef Bohuslav Foerster’s quartets (Supraphon, 2010), they have now come up with another striking project.

Karel Kovařovic (1862–1920) is primarily known for his work as the director of the opera company of the National Theatre in Prague, as well as a conductor, while his own music has been generally overlooked. Nevertheless, Kovařovic wrote several operas, ballet and incidental music, songs, choral and chamber pieces. The Stamic Quartet has made the very first recording of his string quartets, which are yet to be published. The most remarkable of them is String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, dedicated to Antonín Dvořák, which six years after its premiere in Prague (1888) was performed at the Musikverein in Vienna. Kovařovic did not finish his String Quartet No. 3, most likely owing to his being extremely busy as a conductor and his new responsibilities at the National Theatre. The new album made by the Stamic Quartet serves to prove that Kovařovic’s quartets deserve to be paid much greater attention to than has been the case over the past century.

Reviews

June 2019

Given that Kovařovic was primarily known as an opera conductor, it’s perhaps no small wonder that there’s an almost vocal quality to the numerous memorable melodies in these immediately appealing works; No. 2 in A minor pays obvious homage to its dedicatee Dvořák (particularly in its folksy scherzo), but my personal favourite is the earlier D major quartet, its exuberant opening oddly reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s youthful Octet.

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Karel Kovařovic: The Complete String Quartets

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Recording of the Week, Karel Kovařovic's complete string quartets from the Stamic Quartet

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