Elegie (“Under the Influence of Zeyer’s Vysehrad”) Op.23 (1902)

The major influence on Josef Suk’s life and career was Antonin Dvorák, whose favourite pupil he was and whose daughter Otillka he married in 1898. But he also fell under the spell of the writings of the Czech poet Julius Zeyer, particularly his romantic fairy-tale drama Radúz a Mahulena, whose hero and heroine he identified with himself and Otilka. Having supplied extensive incidental music for Radúz a Mahulena in 1898, he compiled an orchestral suite from it, Pohadka, two years later. The Elegie was written for a Zeyer memorial evening which took place a year after the poet’s death in 1902. In its original version (for solo violin and cello, string quartet, harmonium and harp) it was designed to accompany a tableau vivant from Zeyer’s epic poem Vysehrad. That version was not intended for publication, however, and was shelved in favour of a very much more practical piano-trio arrangement made at much the same time.

Although the piano-trio version of carries the subtitle “Under the Influence of Zeyer’s Vysehrad,” its well chosen Elegie title requires no further elaboration. It is based almost exclusively on the nostalgic melody introduced by violin over a syncopated chordal accompaniment on the piano in the opening bars. There are two briefly dramatic episodes, the second recalling a familiar gesture from Dvorák’s recently completed Rusalka, but it is mainly a matter of violin and cello extending, developing and generally luxuriating in one of Suk’s most expressive melodic inspirations.