Wenzel Heinrich Veit: Complete String Quartets, Volume Two
The German-Bohemian composer Wenzel Heinrich Veit (1806–64) – Václav Jindřich Veit in Czech – is one of music’s most unjustly forgotten figures. As these first recordings of his four string quartets will show, he is not only the link between the Bohemian composers of the end of the Classical period and the wave of Czech Romanticism that began with Smetana but also an outstanding composer in his own right. His quartets trace the stylistic evolution of his time: they emerge from a debt to Haydn and Beethoven and embrace Mendelssohn and Schumann on their way to pre-echoes of Dvořák.
Kertész Quartet, playing on original instruments
Katalin Kertész and Jean Paterson, violins
Nichola Blakey, viola
Cressida Nash, cello
Listen To This Recording:
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String Quartet No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 7 (1838)
- I Allegro moderato e patetico
- II Menuetto. Allegretto
- III Andante
- IV Finale: Allegro molto
- I Allegro molto ed appassionato
- II Menuetto. Allegretto ma non troppo
- III Adagio
- IV Allegro assai – Andante con moto (Air de Bohème) – Allegro assai
String Quartet No. 4 in G minor, Op. 16 (1840)
FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
‘These are both very attractive string quartets […]. They are played wonderfully well by the Kertész Quartet, who follow on from their excellent performances of the first two quartets with another brilliant display. The acoustic and recorded sound is, like the first volume, very good indeed, whilst the booklet notes are excellent; one again, they give a good background to the composer and an exposition of his music.’
—Stuart Sillitoe, MusicWeb International