Signum Quartett
Janáček: Moravian Folk Poetry in Song (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): No. 1, Love
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): So that one could nevermore go back
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): My infinite happiness
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): I'm waiting for you!
Tolstoy: Waltz in F Major (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk)
Janáček: String Quartet No. 1 'The Kreutzer Sonata'
Janáček: Moravian Folk Poetry in Song (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): No. 38, Parting
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): I will await you at the promised time!
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): Oh for one certain look into the future!
Kaprálová: String Quartet, Op. 8
Kaprálová: Vteřiny (Seconds) Op. 18 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): With a white kerchief he waves
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): All the colours of the rainbow
Janáček: Moravian Folk Poetry in Song (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): No. 29, Love letter
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): Merely blind fate?
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): Kamila, darling Kamilka, only now do I feel what love is
Janáček: String Quartet No. 2 'Intimate Letters'
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): Oh come, come, you longed-for moment!
Janáček: Album for Kamila Stösslová, JW VIII / 33 (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): Golden Ring
Janáček: Moravian Folk Poetry in Song (Arr. For String Quartet by Xandi van Dijk): No. 17, For whom the flower
Signum Quartett presents the album the earth trembled, recontextualising the visionary string quartets of Leoš Janáček alongside the striking String Quartet Op. 8 by Vítězslava Kaprálová.
Janáček’s lifelong engagement with folk traditions shaped these works profoundly; he lays bare an extraordinary spectrum of feeling, exposing the innermost reaches of his psyche with an almost unsettling immediacy, music in which the earth really does tremble.
Set against this, Kaprálová’s quartet offers balance: a strikingly youthful yet assured voice emerging from the same cultural milieu, opening an equally compelling emotional range. Interspersed throughout are fragments of Janáček’s folk song arrangements and intimate miniatures from his album for Kamila Stösslová, whose absent voice subtly haunts the programme, weaving a fragile, imagined narrative between the works.
This recording offers a fresh perspective on works that have accompanied the Quartett for many years and remain among the most emotionally overwhelming in the repertoire. Signum Quartett is frequently hailed as one of the most adventurous and outstanding ensembles of today. This is the quartet’s fourth album with PENTATONE, after the Schubert cycle including Aus der Ferne (2018), Ins stille Land (2020), and Lebensmuth (2023).
