Janáček: Quartet No 2 for Strings, "Intimate Letters"

SOMETHING TO KNOW:

In the last decade of his life, Janáček exchanged hundreds of passionate letters with a much younger woman. He enjoyed a burst of creativity in his final years and wrote a number of works inspired by her, including this one.

SOMETHING TO LISTEN FOR:

In one of his many letters, he wrote that he planned to make the third movement “particularly joyful and then dissolve it into a vision that resembles your image.”

Recorded live in Alice Tully Hall on March 4, 2018.
Video produced by Ibis Productions.