String Quartet No. 1 in E minor "From My Life"

This quartet is one of the earliest programmatic chamber works, meaning Smetana wrote it as a direct account of his own life in music, explaining each movement in a letter to a friend. The first movement opens with a striking viola theme, bold and descending, before the upper strings take up faster, more agitated material. The finale builds to a moment where a high, sustained E on the violin cuts through the texture abruptly, a literal depiction of the tinnitus that marked the onset of Smetana's total deafness in 1874.

What to listen for

In the second movement, the music shifts into a polka rhythm, a Czech dance form with a steady, lilting pulse in the lower strings anchoring the melody above. Then in the finale, listen for the moment the polka-like energy is interrupted by that single, piercing high note held by the first violin, the texture drops away beneath it, and the music that follows is noticeably darker and more fragmented than what came before.

Recommended rendition

The Pavel Haas Quartet's 2015 Supraphon recording has been frequently cited for its rhythmic clarity and the viola's portentous weight in the opening theme.

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