String Quartets and Elegy

Ivan Hrušovský emerged as a composer in the period between the generation of Slovak musical modernism and the avant-garde of the 1960s. Among his chamber works, three string quartets occupy a central position, complemented thematically by the Elegy for narrator and string sextet. On the one hand, these compositions synthesize the legacy of composers from Beethoven to Bartók with the avant-garde tendencies of their time; on the other, they are deeply personal statements and symbolic farewells to people who were close to the composer—his son Roman, the musicologist Richard Rybarič, and the philosopher Milan Šimečka.

Performers: Mucha Quartet – Juraj Tomka, first violin; Jozef Ostrolucký, second violin; Veronika Kubešová, viola; Pavol Mucha, cello

Michal Slamka, violin (guest artist); Anton Jaro, double bass (guest artist); Petra Noskaiová, narrator (guest artist)

Contents:

String Quartet No. 1 – In Memory of His Son Roman

1. Sostenuto 05:01

2. Allegro ma non troppo. Presto 09:57

3. Adagio. Andante, ma poco con moto 06:34

String Quartet No. 2 – In Memoriam Richard Rybarič

4. Sostenuto – Allegro ma non troppo. Presto – Adagio. Andante, ma poco con moto 14:46

String Quartet No. 3

5. Largo 12:04

6. Vivace. Molto adagio 09:07

7. Elegy in Memoriam Milan Šimečka for narrator and string sextet, to texts by Jaroslav Seifert (Song) and Milan Rúfus (Music under the Ice) 06:05