"First movement: the love of art in my youth, the romantic atmosphere . . . At the same time, my future misfortune announces itself in the prologue . . . The second movement carries me back to the joyful ecstasy of my youth again . . . The third movement reminds me of my first love, who later became my dear wife. The fourth movement: . . . I realize with joy that my chosen path leads to success, until the catastrophe brings everything to a brutal end . . ." Rarely is the autobiographical context of a composition as clear as it is here. Bedřich Smetana himself wrote these lines in 1878 about his first string quartet "From my Life." The composer, already ravaged by severe illness, regarded his second quartet as a kind of musical testament; it culminates in the last movement, entitled "Triumph over Fate." Both string quartets are deeply personal statements by the composer, and the powerful interpretations of this music by the Bennewitz Quartet are genuinely moving.