Intimate Letters: Janáček & Martinů: new release by Emerson String Quartet

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Emerson String Quartet
Intimate Letters: Janáček & Martinů
00028947780939
Available May 19, 2009

When the Emerson String Quartet releases an album, one’s expectation of excellence isn’t met – it’s exceeded. The Emersons’ exploration of Czech chamber music on this new recording further burnishes a lustrous reputation. The Emersons perform at a superior level of intensity, integrity, energy, and commitment demonstrated since its formation in 1976. It now brings these qualities to Janáček’s String Quartets and the 3 Madrigals for violin and viola by Martinů

Intimate Letters (Quartet no. 2) is based on Janáček’s letters to his muse, Kamila Stösslová, whom he promised that “our life is going to be in it”. We are the fortunate beneficiaries of Janáček’s unrequited passion! This passionate piece also plays a key role in the Daniel-Day Lewis film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

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