Jurgis Karnavicius: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2

Composer Jurgis Karnavicius (1884–1941) made significant contributions to the cultural life in Lithuania after returning to his home country in the late 1920s. His String Quartet No. 1 contains folkloristic elements which bring to mind the late quartets of Dvorák. Karnavicius’ second Quartet shows first signs of a shift towards Expressionism. The Lithuanian Vilnius String Quartet offer world premiere recordings of these two forgotten gems.