[1] From a young age, Josef Suk (born in Křečovice, Bohemia) was deeply involved and well trained in music.

[3] Though he continued his lessons with Wihan another year after the completion of his schooling, Suk's greatest inspiration came from another of his teachers, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.

Owing to a shared heritage—and the coincidence of their dying within a few months of one another—Suk has been closely compared, in works and style, to fellow Czech composer Otakar Ostrčil.

[8] Suk, alongside Vitezslav Novak and Ostrčil, is considered one of the leading composers in Czech Modernism, with much shared influence among the three coming in turn from Dvořák.

[9] Eminent German figures such as composer Johannes Brahms and critic Eduard Hanslick recognized Suk's work during his time with the Czech Quartet.

[4] Over time, well known Austrian composers such as Gustav Mahler and Alban Berg also began to take notice of Suk and his work.

[13] Suk died on 29 May 1935, in Benešov, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic); he was buried in the cemetery of St Luke's Church, Křečovice.

Other works, however – such as the music he set to Julius Zeyer's drama Radúz a Mahulena – display his happiness, which he credited to his marriage with Otilie.