Silver Coin 200 CZK Josef Suk 150th Anniversary of Birth 2024 Proof

Josef Suk - 150th anniversary of his birth

The reverse side of the coin features a portrait of Josef Suk. The text "JOSEF SUK" and the year numbers "1874 - 2024" appear in the description at the edge of the coin. Below the portrait is a facsimile of Josef Suk's signature. Initials of the author of the coin MgA. Petra Čánská, which are formed by the composition of the letters "P" and "Č", are located at the bottom edge of the coin.

On the obverse side of the bicentenary, the violin corpus is depicted on Josef Suk's autographs. On the spur of this corpus is the vertical text 'CZECH REPUBLIC' and below it the horizontal text with the denomination and the abbreviation of the monetary unit '200 CZK'.

Josef Suk Sr. (04 January 1874 - 29 May 1935) was a Czech composer, violinist and teacher. His lyrical music ranks him among the most important representatives of the turn of Romanticism and Modernism. He was the grandfather of the violin virtuoso Josef Suk Jr. and the son-in-law and pupil of the composer Antonín Dvořák.

He was born into the family of a head teacher in the small village of Křečovice near Neveklov, the youngest of three children. He received his first violin at the age of eight, but also learned to play the piano and organ.

Already at the age of eleven he began to study violin and stock at the Prague Conservatory. His second professor of music composition was Antonín Dvořák, whose daughter he married in 1897.
During his studies he became friends with another prominent figure, Oskar Nedbal. Together with Nedbal and two other classmates, he founded the Czech Quartet in 1892, which became the first professional chamber ensemble in Bohemia and achieved success abroad. He left the string quartet after forty-one years in 1933 for health reasons.

He took up composing as a boy and some of these works are still performed today. At a young age he was greatly inspired by the personality and work of Antonín Dvořák. His poetic and lyrical music, which was a continuation of Romanticism, reflected the composer's personal happiness and his loving relationship with his wife Ottilie. Among the best known works from this period are the String Serenade (1892) and Symphony in E major (1899) and the setting of Julius Zeyer's fairy tale Radúz and Mahulena (1898).

The transformation of his work comes at the beginning of the new century. Josef Suk became one of the founders of Czech musical modernism. After the death of his father-in-law in 1904 and his wife a year later, he went through a period of grief that also influenced his music. He works on symphonic works, which in their entirety are among the highlights of musical lyricism. These include the symphonies Azrael (1906), the musical poem A Summer's Tale (1907-1909), Maturation (1912-1917) and Epilogue (1920-1933).

From 1922 he was a professor and four times rector at the Prague Conservatory. He teaches composition in the master class and among the names of his pupils are personalities such as Jaroslav Ježek and Bohuslav Martinů.

Each silver coin is stored in a protective plastic capsule and placed in a dark blue box along with a certificate of authenticity from the CNB.