Jean SIBELIUS (+ Bedrich SMETANA) : STRING QUARTETS Voces intimae (+ From My life) - KOCIAN Quartet

The original pairing of two musical diaries. One of them, by the composer of The Bartered Bride, is made explicit: ‘What I wanted to do was retrace the sequence of my life in music’. The other, sombre and often introspective, with its inner voices (voces intimae), in turn ghostly and diabolical, is unique in the output of the composer of Valse triste. It wavers between fear, dreaming and a return to life, initially pesante before getting lighter as it reverts back to the rustic language of the folk dance. Smetana, on the other hand, praised the polka, both ‘highbrow’ and popular, a manifestation of love and liveliness, even when the muffled echoes of this irrepressible swirl take on a funereal aspect.

PRD/DSD 250 257