Daughter of Jiří Novák, the first violin of the Smetana Quartet, Dagmar Virtová, together with the Czech Philharmonic, organized a memorial concert for the 100th anniversary of her father’s birth. The concert took place on November 23, 2024 at Dvořák Hall of Prague’s Rudolfinum. During the evening, the string quartet “From My Life” by Bedřich…

The Czech Chamber Music Society of the Czech Philharmonic in honor of Jiří Novák organizes an extraordinaryconcert on Saturday, November 23, 2024 in Dvořák Hall Rudolfinum. The word is being accompanied by Jitka Novotná. The concert will be complemented by a projection from the private archive of Dagmar Virtová, the daughter of Jiří Novák. The…

For the hundredth anniversary of the birth of violinist Jiří Novák, Czech Television prepared a report in the program Z metropole featuring Dagmar Virtová (née Nováková). It mainly focused on the connection of the Smetana Quartet with Prague 5, specifically with Cibulky. This program can be viewed in the ČT archive at this link. https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10116288835-z-metropole/224411058230036…

On the 5th of September 2024, we commemorate one hundred years since the birth of the primary violinist of the Smetana Quartet, Jiří Novák. To mark this occasion, at 7:00 PM Radio Classic prepared an interview in the program “From the Archive of Personalities.” Dagmar Virtová (née Nováková) fondly recalls the life of her father….

At the invitation of violinist Martin Sekyra, I prepared a thematic evening about the Smetana Quartet from private archives. It was both aboutdisplaying photographs…and videos including listening to recordings. It was not recordings of concerts, but snippets from the life of the Smetana Quartet offstage. The audience consisted mainly of memorabilia and relatives of the…

At the Church of St. Lawrence in Lesser Town, a celebratory concert took place to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary.Doležal QuartetFriends and former members of this ensemble met here. Violinist Bohuslav Matoušek, cellist Petr Hejný, and clarinetist Anna Paulová were part of the program of works by Antonín Dvořák, Franz Schubert, and W. A. Mozart. During…

More documentaries from the life of the Smetana Quartet have appeared on YouTube.Smetana Quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rE-9txk2_w (Document by Jaromil Jireš 1998) https://youtu.be/watch?v=KoXAb62ox5Y (Czechoslovak film weekly 1986)

Thanks to Richard and Lisa Seligman, a unique documentary film was created in Australia. It captures moments from concert tours between 1957 and 1979 – informal snapshots from their time spent with friends. https://youtu.be/EJrQ_FUFZXU  

On the twelfth of January 2023, we commemorated one hundred years since the birth of the original member of the Smetana Quartet, violinist and violist.Jaroslava Rybenského.

June marked the hundredth anniversary of the birthLubomíra Kosteckého. He spent his childhood in Hrušov near Ostrava. He started playing the violin at the age of seven.