Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
String Quartets - Vol. VIII
String Quartet no.10 in E flat major, ‘Slavonic’, op.51 B 92 (1879) [33:23]
String Quartet no.11 in C major, Op.61 B 121 (1881) [39:01]
Zemlinsky Quartet (František Souček, Petr Střĺžek (violins), Petr Holman (viola), Vladimír Fortin (cello))
rec. Martinek Studio, Prague, 15-16 February 2014.
PRAGA DIGITALS PRD/DSD250305 SACD [72:31]
The Zemlinsky Quartet are in the process of recording all of
Dvořák’s music for string quartet for Praga. This latest instalment
is an especially valuable coupling for the general collector. If you are not
in the market for an ‘intégrale’ of these works complete
with the early student efforts, and with fully mature mastery emerging really
with the tenth Quartet found on this disc, where do you look? You must have
the ‘American’ quartet in F major Op. 96 of 1893, and its two
wonderful successors from 1895, the A flat Op.105 and the G major Op.106.
Those last three much-recorded quartets
are numbered 12-14, so this pairing of numbers 10 and 11 will be the next
works to add, since for once with this composer the numbering does not obscure
the sequence of composition.
The tenth quartet opens with an air of flowing bucolic serenity. You immediately
sense that these Czech musicians, a group formed twenty years ago, are completely
at home with the idiom. They take the exposition repeat, which is welcome,
especially played so engagingly, and when the development steals quietly in,
the succession of crescendi and diminuendi have a natural,
unforced, breathing quality. The molto tranquillo close makes for
the gentlest of leave-takings. The Dumka (Elegie) second
movement has an andante con moto first section, which the Zemlinsky
approach with the just the right elegiac manner. When the contrasting 3/8
Vivace begins, there is no great jolt. It seems a goal of the interpretation
overall not to over-emphasise the traditional Dumka contrasts but to maintain
a sense of a single flowing movement. Nonetheless the presto marking
towards the end brings all the vivacity one could wish. The slow movement
(called Romanza) is tenderly delivered, and the final Allegro
assai has a carefree abandon that’s just right for this most genial
of Dvořák’s quartets.
The eleventh quartet is a big work, nearly forty minutes, with an opening
movement — with exposition repeated as here — that can touch fifteen
minutes. Several commentators suggest Beethoven was the model for this piece.
Be that as it may, the Zemlinsky bring the same Bohemian qualities to this
piece as to its predecessor, preferring to present movements as integrated
and coherent rather than to play up contrasts. Many quartets would make more
of the feroce marking in the first movement development. While the
Zemlinsky acknowledge that moment, it is with a proportionate, even response.
In the coda this relative discretion pays dividends, as the swift alterations
of tempo and dynamic carry the listener convincingly through to the morendo
ppp close. The adagio is played as marked, molto cantabile
and while the scherzo is properly lively so too is the trio. Its dolce
marking is observed for the opening phrase but soon gives way to further rustic
celebrations. The finale’s rhythmic invention is all we expect of a
Czech dance and is well characterised.
This is a valuable pairing, well played and recorded, even though both performances
and the SACD sound could for some listeners be a little self-effacing. Certainly
an earlier Praga SACD of the eleventh quartet from the Pražák quartet,
recorded in 2004, would still be my slight preference in the C major work
– they seem to take its Beethovenian aspirations more seriously. This
is a case of comparing different kinds of excellence, and if you like Czech
music to stay closer to its homeland, this is a very satisfying issue of two
essential chamber works.
Roy Westbrook
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