Composers › Josef Suk › Programme note
Four Pieces Op.17 (1900)
by Josef Suk (1874–1935)
Quasi un ballata
Apassionato vivace
Un poco triste
Burlesque
Although he too was a violinist - he was a member of the Czech Quartet for more than forty years - Josef Suk wrote no major work featuring solo violin. The nearest he came was the Four Pieces Op.17 which are a counterpart to the Four Romantic Pieces Op.77 of his father-in-law, Antonin Dvorák. Unfailingly entertaining, they are presented in a sonata-like sequence with two particularly effective central movements, a brilliant Bohemian scherzo (Apassionato vivace) and a wistful expression of Slavonic melancholy (Un poco triste).
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Four Pieces, Op.17”