Smetana Quartet

Among chamber ensembles few can claim a legacy as distinguished or as deeply tied to national pride as the Smetana Quartet. Formed while Nazi forces occupied Czechoslovakia, the ensemble itself stood out as a rare assertion of Czech identity at a moment when such expressions were forbidden. The players endured that period and later built an international reputation, delivering performances that earned widespread praise while producing some of the most distinguished chamber-music recordings of the 1950s and 1960s.

Bearing the name of the Czech nationalist composer Bedrich Smetana, the group grew out of the Quartet of the Czech Conservatory, which cellist Antonin Kohout (b. 1919) had founded in Prague in 1943. The remaining charter members were second violinist Lubomir Kostecky (b. 1922), violist Vaclav Neumann (1920-1995), and first violinist Jaroslav Rybensky. On 6 November 1945 they appeared for the first time as the Smetana Quartet at the Municipal Library in Prague, a city by then liberated from Nazi control; the program opened with Smetana’s Quartet in E minor (“From My Life”), a work they would later repeat several thousand times.

Neumann departed in 1947 to pursue a conducting career that would span decades, prompting Rybensky to shift to viola; Jiri Novak (b. 1924) took the first-violin chair. By 1949 the quartet had become formally affiliated with the Czech Philharmonic, an orchestra then re-establishing itself after the hardships of World War II. That same year the players embarked on their first tour beyond Czechoslovakia, traveling to Poland, and in 1950 they made their initial recordings with Smetana’s Quartet in D minor.

Health concerns forced Rybensky’s retirement in 1952; Milan Skampa (b. 1928), a violist who also possessed notable musicological expertise, joined in his place. Three years of internal readjustment followed, after which the ensemble re-emerged with renewed strength, the fresh combination of temperaments proving especially fruitful. Within Czechoslovakia their standing remained unmatched, and each member contributed significantly to Prague’s musical life, later receiving professorial appointments at the Academy of Musical Arts in 1967.

By deliberate choice the quartet maintained a modest repertory that they memorized and performed without scores, achieving a concentrated intimacy and tension few contemporary groups could equal. That same intensity was audible on their recordings and in live appearances. Early in the 1970s, however, they found it necessary to enlarge their repertory, which required the return of printed music and music stands; although a measure of earlier tension diminished, the players adopted a broader, more spacious approach. They continued to attract large audiences, recording into the digital era for Supraphon and Denon, and remained among the world’s most cherished chamber ensembles until their final concert in 1989.

Their programs encompassed works by Smetana, Dvorak, Beethoven, Mozart, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Janacek, and Martinu, as well as pieces by living composers including Zdenek Lukas, Vladimir Sommer, Jiri Pauer, Ivan Jirko, and Ilja Hurnik. Across more than four decades they produced dozens of recordings, each marked by distinctive vibrancy and shading. The sessions they made for EMI’s German Electrola label in the mid- and late 1960s have been especially valued for both interpretive and sonic excellence.