This week’s video takes us to the music of Vítězslava Kaprálová, in a miniature performed by Signum Quartett ahead of the ensemble’s new PENTATONE album, the earth trembled.
For this week’s Moto Rec, Signum Quartett performs “With a white kerchief he waves”, from Vítězslava Kaprálová’s Vteřiny (Seconds), Op. 18, in an arrangement for string quartet by Xandi van Dijk.
Barely a minute and a half long, the piece offers a concentrated glimpse into the musical world of Kaprálová (1915–1940), the Czech composer and conductor whose remarkably short life left behind a distinctive body of orchestral, chamber, piano and vocal music.
The recording forms part of Signum Quartett’s forthcoming album the earth trembled, to be released by PENTATONE on 4 September 2026. The programme places Kaprálová alongside Leoš Janáček, connecting two highly individual voices rooted in the same Czech and Moravian musical landscape.
At the centre of the album are Janáček’s two string quartets — No. 1, Kreutzer Sonata, and No. 2, Intimate Letters — together with Kaprálová’s substantial String Quartet, Op. 8, composed in 1936. Around them, Signum Quartett intersperses shorter pieces: arrangements of Janáček’s Moravian Folk Poetry in Song, tiny fragments from his Album for Kamila Stösslová, a Waltz in F major by Leo Tolstoy, and Kaprálová’s Vteřiny.
The result is conceived less as a conventional collection of quartets than as a continuous emotional narrative. Janáček’s relationship with Kamila Stösslová — the inspiration behind Intimate Letters — runs through the programme, while Kaprálová provides a younger voice from the Czech musical world that followed him.
The earth trembled is Signum Quartett’s fourth album for PENTATONE, following Aus der Ferne (2018), Ins stille Land (2020) and Lebensmuth (2023).
Listen to / pre-order the earth trembled on PENTATONE
Watch the video
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