Janacek's String Quartet No 1, 'Kreutzer Sonata'
b"
Erik Levi chooses his favourite recording of Leo\\u0161 Jan\\xe1\\u010dek's String Quartet No 1 'Kreutzer Sonata'
Composed in only nine days in 1923, Jan\\xe1\\u010dek's compact, emotionally supercharged String Quartet No 1 takes its title from Leo Tolstoy\\u2019s 1889 novella where a wife and her violinist lover play Beethoven\\u2019s 'Kreutzer' Sonata together before the jealous husband murders his adulterous wife. Jan\\xe1\\u010dek's music roils with the conflicted passions of tormented love, desire and jealously of Tolstoy's story. But there was emotional turmoil in Jan\\xe1\\u010dek's life, too. Long-fed up with his wife, in 1915 Jan\\xe1\\u010dek had fallen deeply in love with Kamila St\\xf6sslov\\xe1 who, happily married and 40 years his junior, made sure that Jan\\xe1\\u010dek's love remained unrequited. And if that was unfortunate for Jan\\xe1\\u010dek, it was surely lucky for us as he poured his feelings for St\\xf6sslov\\xe1 into music which blazes with a truly exceptional emotional intensity.
"