Suk, Josef

(1874-1935)

 Czech composer and violinist.

After studying with his father, he entered the Prague Conservatory in 1885. In 1891 he stayed on an extra year after graduating to study with Dvorák, who had just joined the staff. In 1892 he wrote his first major work, the Serenade for Strings, op.6, and at the turn of the century he was regarded as among the leading Czech composers of the generation after Dvorák. From 1893 until his retirement in 1933 he played 2nd violin in the Czech Quartet, one of the most famous string quartets of the time. Dvorák remained the dominant stylistic influence on his compositions, although he continued the line of development beyond the point the older composer had reached.

Suk married Dvorák's daughter Otilie in 1898, and her early death in 1906, less than two years after her father's, led Suk to compose what is regarded as his major work, the large symphony Asrael, op.27 (1906), in which the chromatic treatment of the musical language based on Czech folk music leads in the direction of polytonality (music in more than one key simultaneously) and even atonality. This is continued in three other major orchestral works, A Summer's Tale (1909), The Ripening (1917), and Epilog (1929).