At over an hour's duration,
Dvořák's String Quartet No. 3 in D major
B. 18 is the longest of his compositions for this medium. It was written early in his career, probably at some stage in the years 1869 and 1870.
[Sleeve note of the Deutsche Grammophon CD Boxed Set, pp. 34–35] In addition to its length, its style has been described in parts as
Wagnerian
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most ...
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Background
The String Quartet No. 3 was one of three (Nos. 2, 3, and 4) which Dvořák believed he had destroyed after he had disposed of the scores, having been written early in his composing career. The exact date of this one cannot be ascertained, but all three were composed during the years 1868 to 1870, with the completion of No. 4 given as December 1870.[ At a later stage the separate parts for the individual players were re-discovered and these quartets rescued for posterity.][ This quartet appears not to have been published commercially, but it appears in the Souborné vydání díla (complete critical edition), volume 5, dated 1964.
It received its first performance by the Dvorak Quartet, at the ]Rudolfinum
The Rudolfinum is a building in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-Renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava. Since its opening in 1885, it has been associated with music and art.
C ...
, Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, on 12 January 1969.
Structure
String Quartet No. 3 in D major, B. 18 is in four movements, as follows:
Typical performances take between 65 and 70 minutes.
Recordings
The first recording was in 1976 by the Prague String Quartet
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 mi ...
for Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
.[ Subsequent recordings have been made by the Stamic, Panocha, ]Vlach
Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula) ...
and Zemlinsky string quartets.[
In the old-style numbering, the String Quartet No. 10 in E major was 'No. 3'; consequently, confusion has arisen over a suggestion that the first recording of the quartet number 3 was in 1938, by the Lener (Lehner) Quartet,]
Notes
References
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External links
English language version of page about Dvořák's String Quartet No 3 at a Czech site
{{DEFAULTSORT:String Quartet No. 3 (Dvorak)
Dvorak 03
Compositions in D major