Wenzel Heinrich Veit: Complete String Quartets, Volume One
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:
- String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 3 (1834)
- I Allegro moderato
- II Menuetto. Allegretto
- III Hymne russe. Andante con moto
- IV Finale. Presto agitato
- I Introduzione (Sostenuto) – Allegro vivace
- II Adagio cantabile quasi Andante
- III Scherzo: Presto
- IV Rondo: Allegro non tanto
String Quartet No. 2 in E major, Op. 5 (1835)
Bob Lagaaij, The Netherlands :
A true revelation! Magnificent – forgotten – music, four dedicated, excellent musicians. I can’t wait for the last 2 quartets. That’s why Toccata has to stay (forever, I should say).