These two recordings of Dvořák's chamber music arrived
almost simultaneously and, by coincidence, both were recorded
at Potton Hall, but there are other reasons why I am reviewing
them together. The String Quartet No.12, the 'American', and
the Second Piano Quintet are the best-known and most loved of
Dvořák's chamber works, with some distinguished
recordings in the catalogue. Both of the new CDs stand up well
to the competition in terms of performance and recording, without
quite becoming top recommendations, and both couple a familiar
work with an unfamiliar one.
String Quartet No.11 is an attractive work, if a little long-winded
by comparison with its better-known successor. The notes in
the Nimbus booklet claim that it is the most significant of
the quartets before the 'American', though there is also a strong
case to be made for No.9. The Wihan Quartet are strong advocates
for No.11: their fairly brisk tempo for the opening allegro
movement shaves a minute and a half off the time taken by the
Vlach Quartet on Naxos (8.553372, with Quartet No.8), thereby
making it seem a little less over-long. The Vlach deserves its
honoured place in the catalogue, especially at its budget price,
but the Wihans offer a performance at least their equal. Both
are available for streaming from the Naxos Music Library, so
subscribers can compare for themselves.
Nevertheless, the opening of the 'American' takes us into a
different world. It isn't just the familiarity of the work or
the supposed use of Negro spirituals here and in the New World
Symphony - in fact, recent commentators have concentrated on
demonstrating the Czech nature of both works - right from the
start the music grabs the listener's attention. Here, too, the
Wihans offer a thoroughly idiomatic performance. Once again,
their opening allegro ma non troppo is slightly faster
than the Vlach Quartet (8.553371, with Quartet No.13); though
I find it hard to choose between two such fine performances,
I'm inclined to give the Wihans a slight preference here, too.
I'm going to reserve my final recommendation in this movement
for a performance which almost exactly falls in the middle of
the Wihan and Vlach timings: the Keller Quartet on a super-budget
Warner Apex recording which couples the 'American' with another
very attractive and popular work, Dvořák's String
Quintet in E flat, Op.97 (0927 44355 2). Gwyn Parry-Jones described
this as 'a most rewarding' disc, a view which I fully endorse
- see review.
The Wihan Quartet give due emotional weight to the lento
second movement without in any way over-sentimentalising it;
here again, I give them a slight edge over the Vlach Quartet.
The Kellers may seem on paper to take this movement rather fast,
but they give it plenty of emotional weight, too, so I give
them a slight edge over the Wihan and Vlach recordings.
I might have preferred a slightly greater degree of contrast
from the Wihan Quartet between the juxtaposed emphatic and contemplative
sections of the third movement. Perhaps, too, they could have
taken a little more notice of the marking molto vivace,
but they are only a few seconds slower overall than the Vlach
Quartet and their overall times for the finale are exactly the
same. The Kellers take both movements slightly faster than their
rivals, which I think is to the music's advantage.
In individual movements, subjected to close comparison, there
are swings and roundabouts between the Wihan Quartet and their
rivals. As so often, though, playing each of these performances
straight through on its own makes for an enjoyable listening
experience. Once I had played the 'American', I couldn't turn
off the Kellers' performance of the Quintet, but had to let
it play through.
Choice of coupling and/or price may well decide: the Kellers
at the lowest price, with the E-flat String Quintet; the Vlachs
also inexpensive and coupled with another mature string quartet,
No.13, and the Wihans with the less familiar No.11 at £12
post-free from MusicWeb. If you can still find remainders or
second-hand copies of the Warner Apex 4-CD set of chamber music,
which used to be available as 0927 49442 2, where the Keller
Dvořák CD is bundled with good accounts of Mozart,
Beethoven and Janáček, that is the best bargain
of all - but don't forget that the price differential is reduced
by the fact that Musicweb International offer Nimbus CDs at
a competitive price.
The Keller Quartet version also figures in a budget-price 6-CD
set of Dvořák's chamber music which Terry Barfoot
made Bargain of the Month, still available on Warner 2564615272
- see review.
Please check catalogue number before ordering: the number which
I have given varies by one digit from that in TB's review.
Two other discs couple the two Dvořák Piano Quintets
- a reliable Naxos CD with the Vlach Quartet again, partnered
by Ivan Klansky (8.555377) and a Dorian disc with the Lafayette
Quartet and Antonín Kubalek (DOR-90221). Hyperion themselves
already have an excellent version of Op.81 from the Gaudier
Ensemble, coupled with the String Quintet in G, Op.77 (CDA66796)
and Michael Cookson recommended a similar coupling on Supraphon
(SU3909-2, Škampa Quartet with Kathryn Stott - see review).
In fact, there is no shortage of excellent performances of
the mature Piano Quintet, but I have taken the Gaudier as my
benchmark, together with Clifford Curzon's 1953 recording with
the Budapest Quartet, coupled with the Brahms Piano Quintet
in F minor on Naxos Historical 8.110307, also available from
Archipel, and Curzon's later stereo recording with the Vienna
Philharmonic Quartet (Decca 475 084-2, 4 CDs for around £21).
The 1953 Curzon is also available on its own for £1.99
from classicsonline - here.
The Goldner Quartet has one important advantage: like the Vlachs,
they observe the first-movement repeat. I wouldn't go to the
stake over this, especially as it extends the movement to over
13 minutes, three minutes longer than the Gaudier or either
of the Curzon versions, but this is such beautiful music that
I want every note of it. Andreas Haefliger and the Takács
Quartet also observe the repeat on a Decca recording which I
recommended in my September 2009 Download
Roundup - available from passionato.com,
though the parent CD seems to have been deleted. If that version
is reissued, it would make yet another formidable rival for
the new Goldner recording. It's yet another Potton Hall recording,
incidentally.
The opening is one point where the Haefliger version scores,
with just a little more magic added to the wistful opening bars
and wherever that mood of wistfulness is repeated. It's not
that the new recording ignores this mood, simply that it's not
quite as apparent. Then, when the more forceful sections alternate
with that wistfulness, Haefliger and his partners sound just
that little more positive. Matters also improve as the new Hyperion
version progresses but, of versions with the repeat, Haefliger
et al just carry the day, rounding off the movement marvellously.
It's Clifford Curzon's stereo Decca recording that stays in
my mind, though, as perfectly encompassing the two different
moods in this opening movement. I downloaded the Quintet alone
from the box set to which I have referred - it's available on
its own for £6.29, in good mp3 sound, from passionato.com,
though the whole set is tempting, either on disc or as a download.
Actually, I now think that, for all the beauty of the opening,
that recording overdoes the wistfulness slightly at the expense
of the more vigorous passages - Curzon lingers just a little
longer than he had in 1953 - and the early 1960s recording,
though good for its day, cannot match the newer versions.
For all that, I just had to listen to Curzon and the Vienna
players all the way through again when I had listened to their
version once. Bear in mind, too, that Curzon et al observe all
the repeats in the second movement, unlike the first.
The Gaudier Ensemble on the older Hyperion recording probably
strike the best balance between the wistful and the vigorous
elements in the first movement. Despite their omission of the
repeat, their combination of almost all the virtues of the Curzon/Decca
and a more recent recording just about puts them at the top
of what I must stress is a very distinguished pile.
The new Hyperion recording of the Second Piano Quintet is by
no means to be discounted. It's simply that all its virtues
seem to be possessed in slightly greater measure by one of the
older recordings, though not even the 1962 Curzon/VPQ or the
Gaudier Ensemble recording has them all.
Nor is the First Quintet to be written off: it would be interesting
to speculate what our response to it would be if it were not
known to have been composed by Dvořák, but hailed
as a discovery by an unknown composer. It certainly has its
merits and I believe that Dvořák was as unwise to
disown it as he was to disown his early symphonies - even the
first of these, The Bells of Zlonice, is worth an occasional
outing, as I discovered long ago on a Supraphon recording. The
slow movement of the First Quintet includes some passages of
considerable beauty and the new recording makes the most of
these.
Both the new Hyperion and the Nimbus CDs are competitive in
terms of recorded sound - Potton Hall is a favourite location
for chamber music recordings, with good reason. Graham Melville-Mason's
notes make the Nimbus booklet as useful as the enigmatic cover
makes it eye-catching, with the members of the Wihan Quartet
apparently contemplating how to extract their instruments from
the blocks into which they are fixed in the manner of King Arthur's
sword in the stone.
If anything, the new Hyperion reproduces even more faithfully
than the Nimbus, and the booklet is well up to Hyperion's high
standards. Mercifully, it's a little thinner than usual; some
Hyperion booklets are so large that it's difficult to reinsert
them in their case without damage. No gimmicks on the cover,
just an attractive, if rather bland reproduction of a Spring
landscape.
If you like the couplings, then, these two new recordings will
serve you in good stead. There are good reasons for having Quartets
Nos.11 and 12 coupled and no other version outshines the Wihans
in either work sufficiently to rule out a recommendation. The
coupling of the Hyperion is even more desirable; again, no version
of the mature Quintet is so far preferable to the new one as
to rule it out, and the team make an excellent case for the
earlier work.
Brian Wilson
The Wihan Quartet (Leoš Čepický,
Jan Schulmeister (violins); Jiří Žigmund (viola);
Aleš Kaspřík (cello))
