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
New World String Quartet members were: Curtis Macomber and Vahn Armstrong, violins; Robert Dan, viola; and Ross Harbaugh, cello. Members on recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s included Curtis Macomber and Vahn Armstrong, violins; Benjamin Simon, viola; and Ross Harbaugh, cello. The quartet also recorded a Brahms piano quintet with Derek Han, piano. The quartet won the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Chamber Music award in 1979. In 1980 the New World String Quartet became the first quartet-in-residence at Harvard University. The quartet was awarded a Grand Prix du Disque in 1991 for their recording of the string quartets of Debussy, Ravel, and