Dvorak Quartet

Following the extremely successful Dvorák string quartets set (SU 3815-2), the internationally renowned Panocha Quartet – celebrating this year its incredible 40th anniversary of performing in the original line-up – plays the main role in this set too. The four CDs comprise piano quartets and quintets, string quintets and a string sextet. In terms of Dvorák’s oeuvre, this selection virtually spans his entire creative lifetime, from the composition the author designated with the opus number 1 (String Quintet in A minor, B 7) to pieces from the composer’s late period.

The Emerson String Quartet, winner of 9 Grammys® is releasing an album of works never recorded during the course of their 30-year career. The release of Old World-New World has been a long cherished dream and features the Emerson's favorite Dvorak middle and late string quartets. A bonanza of romantic melody, not a note on this 3-CD release has ever before been recorded by the Emersons. Also includes Dvorak's youthful and infrequently performed song cycle on the subject of love, Cypresses, which provides a compelling thematic trove for several of these enamoring quartets.

Antonin Dvorák's Piano Quartet No. 2 is one of the greatest chamber works of the 19th century (as are many of Dvorák's chamber compositions). Written in 1889 at the request of his publisher Simrock, it is a big, bold work filled with the Czech master's trademark melodic fecundity, harmonic richness, and rhythmic vitality. The first movement is a soaring, outdoor allegro with an assertively optimistic main theme accented by Czech contours and Dvorák's love of mixing major and minor modes. The Lento movement's wistful main theme is played with a perfect mixture of passion and poise by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The music alternates between passages of drama and delicacy in this, one of Dvorák's finest slow movements in any medium. The Scherzo's stately waltz is contrasted by a lively, up-tempo Czech country dance. The finale is a high-stepping, high-spirited allegro with a strong rhythmic pulse that relaxes for the beautifully lyrical second subject.

A typically rich programme, to celebrate the Zemlinsky Quartet twentieth anniversary, associating the two best-known of all Slavonic quartets and a trio, A homage to Mozart (K424) that the composer (also a violist) loved to play with friends. Irresistible!