RIP Josef Suk, 1929-2011

Word has reached me via Facebook friend Victor Yélamo in Ireland, and confirmed by press reports, that the great Czech violinist, violist and conductor Josef Suk died on July 6th, 2011 at the age of 81. He passed away just over a month shy of his 82nd birthday, which would have been on August 8th. Regular Classic FM listeners will know his name very well, since we have played many of his lovely recordings over the years. Suk came from illustrious musical forebears. His grandfather was violinist and composer Josef  Suk, and his great-grandfather was none other than Antonín Dvořák. (The elder Suk, as you may have heard on Classic FM, was Dvořák’s star pupil, and later became his son-in-law.) Suk was distinguished in both solo and chamber playing, made many recordings, and founded his own Suk Chamber Orchestra in 1974. Although he was especially noted for his performances of Czech music, and was declared a National Artist in his homeland, Suk also played much of the standard violin and viola repertoire from other composers.  Suk had been off the concert stage since 2002, and his death took place after a long illness.  Here is an obituary from Reuters and from Czech News.

And here is a link to a YouTube video that Victor shared.