{"id":19,"date":"2026-01-19T09:44:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smetanaquartet.com\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:12:35","slug":"jiri-novak","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.smetanaquartet.com\/en\/quartet\/members\/jiri-novak\/","title":{"rendered":"Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

first violin (1947-1989)<\/strong>, *1924 \u20202010<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jelen\u00ed near Vysok\u00e9 M\u00fdto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He was born on September 5, 1924 in Horn\u00ed Jelen\u00ed near Vysok\u00e9 M\u00fdto. His father, Anton\u00edn Nov\u00e1k, was a civil servant. His mother, Tekla, nee Vlkov\u00e1, was a housewife. They owned a small shop with other relatives, from which they later lost their share. Ji\u0159\u00edk was an only child. His father, out of passion, played the violin as a self-taught musician and earned extra money at village events and also had several students. Ji\u0159\u00ed’s first teacher was Professor B\u00f6hm, the school principal in Vysok\u00e9 M\u00fdto, a pianist and organist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The initial pieces on the violin were folk songs. The Sokol gymnastics association organized a concert on June 29, 1929, where the nearly five-year-old Ji\u0159\u00edk performed publicly for the first time. Due to existential problems, the family decided to move to Prague. Another teacher was the leader of the Czech Quartet, Karel Hoffmann, but he soon fell seriously ill and could no longer teach. In the first grade, he studied with Prof. Emil Leichner, the founder of the Czech Nonet. The talent of the ten-year-old violinist was also noticed by Alice, the daughter of Tom\u00e1\u0161 Garique Masaryk. She invited young Ji\u0159\u00edk to the castle in L\u00e1ny. In the presence of the president, he played a few concert etudes in the study and, thanks to this performance, received a scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jind\u0159ich FeldMore about him.<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the age of 14 in 1938, he became a student at profesor Jind\u0159ich Feld<\/a>. He studied basic violin literature with him. At this time, he already earned money as a concertmaster in the orchestra for performances at the theater in Karl\u00edn, where the rural comedy Zl\u00fd jelen was performed. The acting performances of Pivec, Neumann, and other famous names of the time were accompanied by the orchestra music conducted by V\u00e1clav Neumann. Thanks to Neumann, he also played at a one-time concert in 1943 with the future Smetana Quartet with Neumann, Kohout, and Kosteck\u00fd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the closure of the universities, he was supposed to be deployed to Germany. But luckily, the German opera from Duisburg came to Prague and performed at today’s State Opera. Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k got a job here thanks to a successful audition. His parents were very relieved that he didn’t have to go to the Reich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 1944 and 1945 season, they studied fifteen operas including Wagner’s and performed a few of Mozart’s operas at the Estates Theatre. After the end of the German opera, in 1945, he played in the German Philharmonic as a second violinist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war, he joined the Academy of Performing Arts to study under professor Jaroslav Pekelsk\u00fd, a second violinist of the Ond\u0159\u00ed\u010dek Quartet from 1948 to 1952.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1945-47, he played in Talich’s chamber orchestra as concertmaster, and Josef Vlach also played with him at the podium. Talich noticed Nov\u00e1k’s remarkable talent and nurtured him for a solo career. However, the political situation in 1948 ended V\u00e1clav Talich’s activities in Prague, thereby also ending the entire orchestra. At that time, the Smetana Quartet were figuring out who would play the first violin. Anton\u00edn Kohout contacted Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k with a letter, asking if he would like to play in the quartet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov\u00e1k decided and on January 2, 1947, he joined the Smetana Quartet, thus launching his amazing solo and quartet career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, he was still a student at AMU in the class of Jaroslav Pekelsk\u00fd, the second violinist of the Ond\u0159\u00ed\u010dek Quartet from 1948-1952, with whom he performed a concert by A. Khachaturian and with the Czech Philharmonic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his chamber music career, he also managed to study solo concerts. With V\u00e1clav Talich and the Czech Philharmonic, he recorded Mozart’s D major KV. 218 for Parliament Records and Supraphon, Paganini’s D major. He also publicly performed B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k’s violin concerto with the Czech Philharmonic and V\u00e1clav Neumann in 1967, and Igor Stravinsky’s concerto in 1977. He also recorded the solo violin Orpheus in the Underworld at the request of director Slawik.Originally, he requested Mr. Suka, but he was not available at the time. The then director of the Czech Philharmonic, Ji\u0159\u00ed Pauer, offered Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k. Members of the Philharmonic, like the first trumpeter Miroslav Kejmar, still remember the circumstances. Nov\u00e1k reportedly tried the first recording, with which the director was already satisfied, but he was not. And so another final perfect shot was taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k’s last solo concert he prepared during his quartet activities was Glazunov, but he did not publicly perform it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1964, he married the doctor Dagmar Dvo\u0159\u00e1kov\u00e1. They have one daughter Dagmar, who also plays the violin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a pedagogue, he worked at the Academy of Performing Arts (AMU) since 1969. His students included violinists Ji\u0159\u00ed Panocha, the first violin of the Panocha Quartet, Leo\u0161 \u010cepick\u00fd, the first violin of the Wihan Quartet, Jan Kvapil, longtime second violinist of the Talich Quartet, and Hana Kotkov\u00e1, a violin virtuoso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He ended his quartet activity in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he missed playing. For two years, he met with his friends cellist Viktor Mou\u010dka, a member of the Vlach Quartet, and Jaroslav Motl\u00edk, a viola player in \u010cF. It didn’t just stay with playing music at home. They performed at the Ane\u017esk\u00fd kl\u00e1\u0161ter, where they played Mozart’s Trio in E-flat major, Luk\u00e1\u0161’s trio. Together with Mrs. Eva Glancov\u00e1, they performed Mozart’s piano quartet at the Slovans. At the Academy of Performing Arts in the Martin\u016f Hall, they dedicated the whole evening to Bohuslav Martin\u016f, Motl\u00edk and Nov\u00e1k performed a duo and followed it with a trio by the same composer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loaned “Stradivarius” violin called Libon from 1729 from Cremona, which he had since 1975, returned to the state collection. This instrument is named after the Spanish violinist Felipe Libon, who worked at the French and Portuguese courts. After Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k, the violin was loaned to V\u00e1clav Hude\u010dek and now Jan Talich has it.
In August 1986, Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k was on the jury of the Karl Klinger Preis competition in Munich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, he also participated in the Orlando festival in Kerkrade. There he exclusively focused on the Polish quartet. And in the same year, he was invited to Tokyo to the International Music Competition of Japan as a jury member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following year, 1990, he traveled to the well-known festival in Kirishime, Japan, where he arrived alone without the members of Smetanovo Kvarteto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1996, at the age of 72, he once again took the position of the first violinist in a quartet with his daughter Dagmar, cellist \u0160t\u011bp\u00e1nka Kutmanov\u00e1, and violist Old\u0159ich Vl\u010dek, all members of Virtuosi di Praga. They studied Mozart’s KV. 387 in G major and performed at the Krumlov Music Festival in the Masquerade Hall. This concert is also captured in Jaromil Jire\u0161’s documentary about the Smetana Quartet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ji\u0159\u00ed Nov\u00e1k died in Prague on September 10, 2010.
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Article in the Harmonie magazine 2009 (PDF)<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Gallery<\/h2>\n\n\n