Suk, Josef
Composer Information
Josef Suk (4 January 1874 – 29 May 1935) was a Czech composer and violinist. Suk's musical style started off with a very heavy emphasis on what he experienced during his time with Dvořák. The biggest change of Suk's style came after a "dead end" in his musical lifestyle (music played less of a role in Suk's life outside of his schooling) just before he began the shift of style during 1897–1905, perhaps realizing that his known Dvořák influence would restrain his work. Morbidity was always a large factor in Suk's music. For instance, he wrote his own funeral march in 1889 and it appears significantly also in his major work, funeral symphony Asrael. Ripening, a symphony, was also a story of pain and questioning the value of life. Others of his works represent his happiness, such as the music he set to Julius Zeyer's drama Radúz a Mahulena (which he referenced to his marriage with Otilie). Another of Suk's works, Pohádka ('Fairy Tale'), was drawn from his work with Radúz a Mahulena. The closest Suk came to working with opera is music his wrote for the play Pod jabloní or 'Beneath the Apple Tree'. [source from Wikipedia]
Work
