Dvorak - Piano Quintets Nos. 1 & 2 - Hyperion: CDA67805 - CD or download

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The performers offer an immensely satistfying and unmannered performance. — BBC Music Magazine, May 2010, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Mar 2010
Catalogue No: CDA67805
Label: Hyperion
Length: 66 minutes

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Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 5

Work length27:08

$3.30

$4.50

Piers Lane (piano)
Goldner String Quartet

I. Allegro ma non troppo

Track length8:20

$1.10

$1.50

II. Andante sostenuto

Track length9:52

$1.10

$1.50

III. Allegro con brio

Track length8:56

$1.10

$1.50

Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81

Work length39:19

$4.40

$6.00

Piers Lane (piano)
Goldner String Quartet

I. Allegro, ma non tanto

Track length13:22

$1.10

$1.50

II. Dumka: Andante con moto

Track length14:01

$1.10

$1.50

III. Scherzo 'Furiant': Molto vivace

Track length4:18

$1.10

$1.50

IV. Allegro

Track length7:38

$1.10

$1.50

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The performing team of Piers Lane and the Goldner String Quartet has won many plaudits for their enlightening interpretations of the obscurer piano quintet repertoire. Now they turn to a composer who triumphed in the genre.

Dvorák’s two piano quintets were written at different stages of the composer’s career: the first during a period of poverty and uncertainty, the second when the composer was approaching the zenith of his international fame.

The two quintets make a fascinating pairing here. Dvorák originally tore up his manuscript of the first; luckily the pianist at the premiere kept a copy. It is clearly a youthful work, showing something of the discursiveness of the early string quartets, a point noted by a critic at the premiere, but there is no doubting the confidence with which Dvorák handles the combination of piano and strings (doubly impressive since he did not possess a piano at this time), which in many places anticipates the instrumentation in the famous second piano quintet.

Dvorák’s second Piano Quintet was an immediate popular success at its first performance and has remained one of the best-loved examples of the genre. The premiere was given by four of the finest Czech string players of the day and the promising conductor and composer Karel Kovarovic at the piano. The celebrated ‘Dumka’ movement, the lyrical heart of the work, demonstrates the extraordinary command of melody that characterizes the composer’s symphonies.

Performances of technical polish and expressive power, sensitively recorded, combine to make this a chamber disc to treasure.

Reviews

May 2010

The performers offer an immensely satistfying and unmannered performance.

May 2010

The blend of voices - within the string quartet and between the strings and piano - is ideal, the Suffolk Potton Hall acoustic free enough to allow the instruments breathing space...Sound-wise, the Goldner Quartet achieve a warm and radiant pooled tone

16th May 2010

The early quintet...[is] performed here with splendid conviction by Piers Lane and his fellow Australians the Goldner Quartet...In the later quintet, with all its craft, there seems no effort, so spontaneously, so seamlessly does it move. The composer has found his voice, and the result is enchantment.

5th March 2010

This is music to cheer the heart and put a spring in your step...The Goldner Quartet from Australia has teamed up with British pianist Piers Lane in fine, characterful performances

Dvorak - Piano Quintets Nos. 1 & 2

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