String Quartet No. 1 (Smetana)

It is an autobiographical work with nationalistic elements and was published in 1880 by František Augustin Urbánek in Prague.

[1] Smetana was a complex figure in his time, straddling his Austro-Hungarian upbringing coupled with his ethnic Czech background.

At an unknown point in Smetana’s life, he contracted syphilis—in 1874, at 50 years old, his health began to swiftly decline.

In a letter to his friend Josef Srb-Debrnov, Smetana formulated the work's ideological conception and the features of the individual movements.

Smetana himself studied in schools, where education was provided in German and struggled to master the Czech language later in life.

Its notable features include a prominent viola solo at the very beginning of the first movement, and a high, sustained harmonic E on the first violin in the last movement, which represents the ringing in his ears that presaged Smetana's deafness, although the actual ringing was a chord in A-flat major.

The dramatic opening of the first movement was featured in the 1992 film Sneakers at a concert which the characters attend.

This version is rarely played, but orchestral recordings exist and it was performed at the BBC Proms in 2012.