Bedřich Smetana - String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor 'From My Life', JB 1:105

Bedřich Smetana - String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor 'From My Life', JB 1:105 (1876)
Performed by the Stamitz Quartet
Movement One: Allegro vivo appassionato - 0:00
Movement Two: Allegro moderato a la Polka - 8:12
Movement Three: Largo sostenuto - 14:13
Movement Four: Vivace - 23:40
Source of Audio (with performance information) - • Smetana String Quartet...

[@jslartey2]

I played this quartet a year or two ago and I remember looking for a TH-cam score and not finding one. glad it’s here now at least 😁

[@theenglishalpinist5031]

My God, I've never discovered the music of Smetana until now (naturally have heard snippets of Moldau over the years), but I'm instantly gripped by this - no 'acquired taste or growing to understand it - from the opening bars, the drama, the thematic material, the tone quality - superb music.

[@MegaJoohyun]

Not so fun fact: He was losing his capacity to hear, so he wrote this to express his pain. Thanks to Milan Kundera for this fact

[@StefanGraz]

27:28 He heard this high note E through tinnitus. This announced his hearing loss.

[@thatsEforEveryone]

I'm literally in love with the second movement

[@rupe82]

Interesting fact: Smetana had tinnitus, the sustained note at 27:30 represented the ringing in his ears.

[@jamesbarlow6423]

Supposedly Beethoven's longstanding tinnitus appears as the opening woodwind note of the 1st movement of his 9th, just brought low by some octaves.

[@eggmcguffin4794]

I got tinnitus. It’s dumb.

[@rupe82]

@@eggmcguffin4794 Me too. I can tune it out mostly but it gets loud when I'm tired.

[@vid4622]

50歳を過ぎたスメタナによる、後期ロマン的佳作でございます！！

[@SuperFeralcat]

very powerful and moving

[@sylvainpenard9354]

00:00 : Allegro vivo appassionato - le compositeur évoque sa jeunesse, son goût pour l'art, ses aspirations romantiques, une nostalgie indicible. On y entend l'avertissement du malheur futur
01:58 : deuxième thème (repris dans la coda du 4è mvt)
08:12 : Allegro moderato alla polka. Tourbillon de la jeunesse alors que Smetana composait une foule de danses tchèques et qu'il avait une réputation de danseur infatigable.
14:13 : Largo sostenuto - réminiscence de son premier amour avec une jeune fille qui devint plus sa chère épouse
23:40 : 4e mouvement - Vivace - Prise de conscience de la force réelle d'une musique nationale et la joie de constater que le chemin pris conduit au succès
27:26 : Coda - interruption brutale provoquée par la catastrophe : début de la surdité, perspective d'un triste avenir, un très faible espoir d'amélioration et, pour conclure, un sentiment profondément douloureux - reprise du 1er thème du 1er mouvement
28:12 : reprise du 2è thème du premier mouvement

[@Dylonely42]

Merci beaucoup.

[@annalin1125]

9:57 happy noble
27:30 deafness

[@dariopinto1284]

:-\

[@eggmcguffin4794]

Second movement so bussin

[@AlineTamaraOliveiraSilvoni]

0:43 - 1:37
2:17 - 5:02

[@wolfzatadaemus4632]

Hey these first music was on game Torchgame2 🤣🤣

[@Dylonely42]

Smetana had such a sad life… it’s a shame that he is only known for his poem The Moldau.

[@walshamite]

Well, is he? The Bartered Bride is very popular.

[@matiasfernandez4136]

vine por la hermosa intro de Torchlight 2

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

why is called “from my life”?

[@cwaller1151]

Smetana intended it as an autobiography. By the time he wrote it he had gone deaf from syphilius and would die within the decade. As a sort of way of dealing with the chronic illness and social isolation caused, he wrote the quartet. The opening represents the cruel twist of fate, the second his childhood, the third his marriage (bittersweet given his wife and daughter died) and the final his resignation as the oncoming deafness finally overpowers him. Or something along these lines.
He actually wrote in a letter to a friend before finishing the piece:
"My intention was to paint a tone picture of my life. The first movement depicts my youthful leanings toward art, the Romantic atmosphere, the inexpressible yearning for something I could neither express nor define, and also a kind of warning of my future misfortune . . . The long insistent note in the finale owes its origin to this. It is the fateful ringing in my ears of the high-pitched tones which in 1874 announced the beginning of my deafness. I permitted myself this little joke, because it was so disastrous to me. The second movement, a quasipolka, brings to mind the joyful days of youth when I composed dance tunes and was known everywhere as a passionate lover of dancing. The third movement . . . reminds me of the happiness of my first love, the girl who later became my wife. The fourth movement describes the discovery that I could treat national elements in music and my joy in following this path until it was checked by the catastrophe of the onset of my deafness, the outlook into the sad future, the tiny rays of hope of recovery, but remembering all the promise of my early career, a feeling of painful regret."

[@annalin1125]

00:50

[@romualdkowalewski4373]

00:58

[@yh00cdgi]

27:00

[@sorrakim]

2:00

[@konnerkiesel8666]

14:13

[@ericlindholm9482]

Wow, the first movement is so slow! Could their violist not play it at tempo?

[@hannahlkleinberger]

ummmm shut up

[@stylianne_0129]

Maybe the others couldnt reach him

[@steveegallo3384]

Eric Lindholm -- Is that the best you got, Eric? Letting these commentators walk all over you? Like you're some kind of clown? Or Fool?? Dig in, pal...and...DEFEND YOUR POSITION !

[@biancapelzer6016]

come on people.... let's just appreciate the music.

[@hannahlkleinberger]

Bianca Pelzer exactly! Well said