Canter Bridge

From the heart of Central Europe in the first quarter of the twentieth century comes this penetrating, challenging, occasionally disturbing, and ever rewarding music for small ensembles. The Prague-born Prazak Quartet is of course equal to the challenge.

Leos Janacek’s music for string quartet show what the genre can be. Easily mistaken for a weak, limpid subset of classical music, music for quartet a la Janacek is as sinewy and energetic as it gets.

The Quartets for String Quartet Nos. 1 and 2 and the same composer’s Sonata for Violin and Piano alternately set the listener on edge and his heart to soaring. One wonders whether music can get any more emotionally gripping than this. One speculates, too, upon what angels and demons plucked the strings of Janacek’s heart while he wrote it.

I first heard Janacek for quartet played by the Takacs Quartet during a 2007 visit to Indianapolis. A little research turned up the Prazak as equally fine interpreters of the Czech legend. You could hardly do better for getting acquainted with this most modern of composers than this CD.