Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
String Sextet in A, Op. 48 (1878) [33:19]
String Quintet in G, Op. 77 (1875) [33:37]
Intermezzo in B (1875) [4:34]
The Nash Ensemble
rec. January-February 2004, St. Jude's Church, Hampstead, UK
ALTO ALC1273 [71:33]
The Nash Ensemble offers the two faces of Janus here.
The opening phrases of the Sextet establish a pleasingly sentimental "old Bohemian" mood; the dotted rhythms shortly thereafter, however, are flabby and unincisive - dishrag-limp, actually. The second group is genial, and the development's folklike flavour comes across. But imprecise tuning robs the recapitulation's high, light passages of their magic, and, in the home stretch, the overemphatic cellos are shockingly coarse. The middle movements, a folklike two-step Dumka and an exuberant Furiant with a sunny Trio, go well; but, in the closing theme-and-variations, the scurrying writing is catch-as-catch-can. The players don't provide execution to match their unified intent. Even the recorded ambience seems peculiar: all the musical strands are clear, but an odd white noise fills the textural spaces between them.
The Quintet sees just two personnel changes - a different first violin, a double-bass swapping in for one of the cellos - but it inhabits a different world. The playing is clean, accurately tuned even at speed, and rhythmically alert; the phrasing is strongly directional, the chording more consistently unified. The bracing Scherzo is more severe than melancholic; the first Trio, keeping tempo, suggests a more relaxed "rocking," while the second offers rhapsodic violin writing. The leisurely Poco andante is tinged with Slavic melancholy. The Finale, at once exuberant and grand, caps the performance perfectly. Even the St. Jude's acoustic sounds clearer and more natural, with excellent low-bass focus and presence.
The Intermezzo, more like the Quintet than the Sextet, makes a lovely "encore": gently, tentatively lyrical until a more explicitly rhythmic passage picks things up.
So it's one down, one up. As we used to say Stateside, "you pays your money and you takes your choice."
Stephen Francis Vasta
stevedisque.wordpress.com/blog
