Josef Suk

Josef Suk (Křečovice, 1874 – Benešov, near Prague, 1935) was one of the central figures of Czech music at the close of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. A composer and violinist, he belonged to the generation that inherited the legacy of Dvořák and carried it towards a more personal idiom, and his name is linked both to chamber performance and to symphonic composition.

The son of a schoolmaster and choirmaster in his native village, he received his first lessons in piano, violin and organ from his father. In 1885 he entered the Prague Conservatory, where he studied violin, theory and composition, and he completed his training under Dvořák, who joined the teaching staff in 1891 and eventually became his favourite teacher. His daughter, Otilie, would later become his wife, in 1898. From 1892, as second violin of what came to be known as the Czech Quartet, he toured Europe for four decades, giving more than four thousand concerts, until his retirement in 1933. This dual life as performer and creator largely explains the character of his work, which was often written in the gaps of a very demanding schedule.

In composition, his early pieces, written before he turned twenty, brought him early success, among them the Serenade for strings, Op. 6, and the piano piece 'Canción de amor'. His style evolved from a lyrical Romanticism towards a complex polytonal writing, without clearly submitting to outside currents. Although he wrote hardly any vocal music, his gift for orchestral and instrumental music was beyond question. Works such as the Fantasy for violin and orchestra or the symphonic poem Praga show his mastery of orchestral colour, although it is with the trilogy of his maturity that he reached his greatest height.

The blows of 1904 and 1905, with the deaths of Dvořák and of his young wife, profoundly marked his life and his music. From that grief came the great symphony Asrael, Op. 27, a work of profound dramatic force that is compared with Mahler for its structural solidity and emotional impact. He then composed orchestral pieces of wide scope, such as Zrání and Epílog, in which the psychological journey of life becomes ever darker. His piano works, such as the cycle Životem a snem, anticipate with their expressive economy some features of Debussy's Preludes.

At the Prague Conservatory he was professor of composition in the advanced classes, and there he trained numerous composers, among them Martinů. His dedication to teaching, his presence in the Czech Academy of Sciences and his four terms as rector of the conservatory attest to his institutional weight. Today he is remembered above all as Dvořák's most singular heir and as one of the creators who made Czech music a voice of its own in the Europe of his time.