The German-Bohemian composer Wenzel Heinrich Veit (1806–64) – Václav Jindřich Veit in Czech – is one of music’s most unjustly forgotten figures. As these first recordings of his four string quartets reveal, he is not only the link between the Bohemian composers of the end of the Classical period and the wave of Czech Romanticism that began with Smetana – he is also an outstanding composer in his own right. His four quartets trace the stylistic evolution of his time: they emerge from a debt to Haydn and Beethoven and embrace Mendelssohn and Schumann on their way to pre-echoes of Dvořák. This recording of the first two Quartets will be followed by Nos. 3 and 4 in a later release, already ‘in the can’ and now being prepared.

The Kertész Quartet – Katalin Kertész and Eleanor Harrison, violins; Nichola Blakey, viola; Tatty Theo, cello – was formed in 2010 by four leading period-instrument specialists following a desire to explore chamber music of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century and, using historical instruments, bring it to audiences. The Quartet combines traditions of the central European and historic, period-performance practices. Using gut strings and historic bows, the original sound-world, liveliness and intensity of the music is revived in fresh performances that are relevant today. The members of the Quartet are all leading performers on the British early-music scene.