Novak's complete quartets for the first time in the anointed handsof the Stamic QuartetFor an impressive forty years, the Stamic Quartet (established in 1985) havebeen enjoying countless international successes both in concert performancesand studio recordings. Just during the last fifteen years, the Supraphon labelhas released albums of the ensemble featuring the first recordings ofthe complete works for string quartet by J. B. Foerster (2010), Sofia Gubaidulina(2012), and Karel Kovarovic (2019). For the Stamic Quartet's fortieth anniversary,they have recorded this complete set of Vitezslav Novak's quartets, which alsodefinitely completes the ensemble's remarkable list of recordings. Nearly fortyyears separate the First Quartet by Dvorak's 29-year-old pupil, inspired bythe countryside of Moravia and Slovakia and by folk music, from the ThirdQuartet, with it's anxious premonitions of war. The works demonstratea considerable stylistic shift in the composer's musical language. Fromthe foundations of the musical traditions of Romanticism, through inspirationfrom Moravian and Slovak folklore, Novak arrived at a personal style with integralcomponents including the church modes, the sonic world of Impressionism,a polyphonic sensibility for musical structure (as is clear from the extensivefugue of the Second Quartet), and rhythmic richness. The experienced StamicQuartet is the first ensemble to record Novak's complete quartets, and it hasdone so with commitment that would be the envy of many young ensembles.
