Bartók & Dvořák

Born 40 years apart in what is now Hungary and the Czech Republic, Bartók and Dvořák infused the sounds of their homelands into their music. Bartók composed his First String Quartet while nursing the wounds of an unrequited love and finding his future wife. Fittingly, he described the opening movement as a “funeral dirge,” which dissolves into lighter, livelier themes that draw from folk melodies, including the Hungarian folksong “Fly, Peacock, Fly,” a metaphor for the liberation of the spirit.