Stamic Quartet

Chamber Music Stamic Quartet

Geraldine Mucha's (1917-2012) long life spanned two world wars and a brutal Communist regime. She was born in London to Scottish parents, both artists/musicians. Her early and evident musical talent was encouraged by Arnold Bax and Benjamin Dale. From 1935, aged 18, she studied formally at the Royal Academy of Music, where her teachers included two younger, more modern composers, William Alwyn and Alan Bush.

In 1941 she met a young, exiled Czech war correspondent called Jirí Mucha, son of the famous graphic artist Alphonse Mucha, a leading figure of the Art Nouveau movement. They married and moved to Prague in 1945, at the end of the war. The communist regime considered the works of Alphone Mucha "decadent' and the young couple were severely thwarted in promoting his legacy. They fled the regime's opposition, and went back to Scotland, only to return to Prague after the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989.

Geraldine Mucha's remarkable compositions breathe the Middle European 20-th century style of Janácek and Bartók: strong rhythms, often reminiscent of folk music, accentuate a late-romantic melodic idiom.

Included are two string quartets, a wind quintet, works for flute and piano and piano solo works. Performed with infectious vitality by the Stamic Quartet and Prague Wind Quintet, as well as eminent pianist Patricia Goodson.