Zemlinsky Quartet

Emil František Burian: String Quartet No. 4

Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 2, Sz. 67, BB 75

Leoš Janáček: Quartet for Two Violins, Viola, and Cello ("Intimate Letters"), JW VII/13

Emil František Burian (1904–1959) ranks among the most interesting and versatile figures of the Czech interwar avant-garde. He distinguished himself not only as a prolific composer, actor, singer, and writer but, above all, as a theatre and film director who championed innovative artistic approaches. Janáček’s music influenced not only Burian’s music-dramatic works but also left its mark on his chamber compositions. Burian’s String Quartet No. 4 was written in 1947, a period when the composer was recovering from the aftermath of his imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps. The quartet serves as a powerful and moving personal testament, alternating between passages of deep introspection and melancholy and moments of overt irony and harshness.