Josef Suk - Serenade in E flat Major op. 6 - The Young Danish Chamber Orchestra

The Young Danish Chamber Orchestra.
Gunnar Tagmose, conductor.

Josef Suk (4 January 1874 -- 29 May 1935) was a Czech composer and violinist.

Josef Suk's Serenade for Strings in E flat major, Op. 6, was composed in 1892.

While Suk was studying under Antonín Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory, Dvořák noticed a melancholy strain in much of Suk's music, and recommended he write some lighter and more cheerful music. Based on Dvořák's suggestion, Suk produced a serenade for strings.

Two movements were publicly conducted by Suk in late 1893 in Tabor. The first complete performance was on 25 February 1895, at the Prague Conservatory, conducted by Antonín Bennewitz, Suk's violin teacher at the Conservatory.

The serenade soon brought Suk considerable fame and Dvořák's longtime supporter, Johannes Brahms, endorsed its publication.

Suk was born in Křečovice. He studied at Prague Conservatory from 1885 to 1892, where he was a pupil of Antonín Dvořák and Antonín Bennewitz. In 1898, he married Dvořák's eldest daughter, Otilie Dvořáková (1878--1905), affectionately known as Otilka. In 1901, she bore him their only son, Josef (1901 -- 1951). Otilie died in 1905, and the composer never remarried.

He formed the Czech Quartet with three of his fellow students — Suk played second violin with them for most of his life. From 1922 he taught at the Prague Conservatory where his pupils included Bohuslav Martinů, Rudolf Firkušný and Manoah Leide-Tedesco.