Gildas Quartet – Janáček: String Quartet no.1, 'The Kreutzer Sonata', 4th movement

The Gildas Quartet performs the final movement of Leoš Janáček’s 1923 String Quartet no.1, subtitled ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’. The work is named after Leo Tolstoy’s novella of the same name (which itself features Beethoven’s famous violin sonata) in which a woman is murdered by her husband who suspects her of infidelity. 

Janáček was vocally committed to women’s rights and this work is thought to represent the struggle of women in an unequal society.

The performance was filmed in the crypt of St Andrew’s Holborn, London, and commissioned by City Music Foundation with support from Fidelio Charitable Trust.