String Quartet No. 2 (Smetana) The composition was at first received by the part of listeners and critics with hesitation, and even with objections. However, thanks to many successful interpretations (Czech Quartet, Smetana Quartet, Janáček Quartet etc.) the quartet today belongs to the great values of Czech music history and culture. String Quartet No. 2 (Smetana) Bedřich Smetana's String Quartet No. 2 in D minor is a chamber composition for string quartet. It's Smetana's last quartet. In June 1882, after composing the monumental cycle Má vlast, operas Tajemství, Čertova stěna and other works, Smetana began thinking about the creation of his second string quartet. A
String Quartet No. 3 (Villa-Lobos) Albert and Doris Cheney, violins, Raymond Menhennick, viola, and Lysbeth LeFevre, cello . The UK premiere was given by the Stratton String Quartet (George Stratton and Carl Taylor, violins; Watson Forbes, viola; John Moore, cello) on 9 January 1934, at the Wigmore Hall, London . Because of the persistent percussive pizzicato patter in the second, scherzo movement, Villa-Lobos gave it the onomatopoeic, alliterative nickname "pipocas e potócas" (popcorn and tall tales), and this nickname is also applied to the entire quartet . The quartet, like all but the first of Villa-Lobos's works in the medium, consists of four movements: The