Janacek: String Quartets No.1 Kreutzer Sonata , No. 2 Intimate Letters

For 50 years now, the Talich Quartet has taken its place in a prestigious lineage of Czech musicians. Jan Talich Senior, the creator of the Quartet, was the nephew of Vaclav Talich, music director of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 1919 to 1939. It was he who made it one of the world ‘s finest orchestras before Karel Ancerl came to harvest the fruits he had so patiently cultivated. In 1997, the last musician in the family, Jan Talich Jr, took over the reins of the quartet from his father, surrounding himself with three talented musicians. The future is now theirs to mould, a future they cannot envisage without taking account of their tradition, a philosophy of music that the current lineup perpetuates and continues to nurture.
‘For 50 years now, the Talich Quartet has been synonymous with the finest qualities of the Czech string quartet tradition. Despite the inevitable changes of personnel which have taken place since its formation, the Talich remains one of the most dependable and immediately recognizable heirs to a renowned heritage … The current line up…[brings] rigour and technical brilliance to these arresting and sharply contoured accounts … these polished and brilliant accounts of Janacek s two String Quartets seem exemplary and rank alongside many of the finest ever recorded … the playing is splendid in every way … Well worth investigating.’ –Michael Jameson International Record Review, October 2014