String Quartet No. 2 "Intimate Letters"

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Janáček’s 2nd String Quartet, “Intimate Letters”, is regarded as a highlight of the modern string quartet literature. It was written during the composer’s last year of life, betwee n 29 January and 19 February 1928, inspired by the ageing Janáček’s exceptional love for Kamila Stösslová. The Moravian Quartet devoted themselves to this impressive work; Janáček attended a total of three of their rehearsals in May and June 1928. This had several consequences, including his abandoning his original idea of using a viola d’amore. After Janáček’s unexpected death (12 August 1928) the uncertain genesis of the work became the greatest problem of the “Intimate Letters”: the surviving copies were not definitively authorised. The editors of this new edition have reverted to Janáček’s autograph sketches as the main, most reliable source and using these as a basis, have reconstructed the work as it stood at the point of Janáček’s death. The musical text, taken from the “Critical Complete Edition of the Works of Leoš Janáček” (Vol. E/4), therefore contains clear differences in comparison with older editions. Show more