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The
String Quartet no.2 in D minor
brings a change of scene. Begun in summer
1882 and completed on 12 March 1883, and following the composition of his eighth
and final opera,
The Devil’s Wall
, this was Smetana’s last major work. Its long
gestation is explained by his illness. Again, the work is a confession, similar in spirit
to his String Quartet no. 1. In a letter to the publisher Václav Vladimír Zelený, the
composer wrote:
‘No one can imagine how difficult it is to remember one’s
[musical] ideas when one has lost one’s hearing! If I do not
write them down straight away, I forget them. And I used to
have such an exceptionally good memory.’
14 SMETANA / FIBICH