Dvorak: Quintets Op. 81 & 97

Throughout the slow movement, the playing of the solo lines is captivating…The Haas Quartet with Boris Giltburg provide both relaxation and a strong sense of purposeful energy…Excellently recorded,... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, More…

Release Date: 20th Oct 2017
Catalogue No: SU41952
Label: Supraphon
Length: 74 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

November 2017

Recording of the month
Gramophone Magazine

November 2017

Editor's Choice
Presto Recording of the Week

20th October 2017
Presto Recordings of the Year

Winner 2017
Building a Library

April 2018

Recommended Recording
Gramophone Awards

2018

Winner - Chamber

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Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81

42:04

Pavel Haas Quartet
Boris Giltburg (piano)

I. Allegro, ma non tanto

14:58

II. Dumka - Andante con moto

14:16

III. Scherzo -Furiant - Molto vivace

4:21

IV. Finale - Allegro

8:29

Dvorak: String Quintet No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 97 'American'

32:37

Pavel Haas Quartet
Pavel Nikl (viola)

I. Allegro non tanto

9:11

II. Allegro vivo

5:48

III. Larghetto

9:50

IV. Finale - Allegro giusto

7:48

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Recording of the Week, Dvořák Quintets from the Pavel Haas Quartet, with Boris Giltburg and Pavel Nikl

20th October 2017

James enjoys a much-anticipated new release from the Pavel Haas Quartet (and two formidable guest players): stunning performances of Dvořák's Piano Quintet op. 81 and the String Quintet op. 97.

Recorded in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague, 18-19 May (Op. 97) and 26-27 June 2017 (Op. 81).

Seven years after they triumphed with Dvořák’s quartets (SU40382, op. 96 “American” and op. 106 – Gramophone Award „Recording of the Year“), Pavel Haas Quartet are back to Dvořák. For the occasion of recording his quintets, they have invited two guests: the pianist Boris Giltburg (winner of 2013 Queen Elizabeth Competition), as well as one of the PHQ founding members, violist Pavel Nikl. Antonín Dvořák composed his Piano Quintet No. 2 while staying at his beloved summer house in Vysoká in the late summer of 1887. The renowned critic Eduard Hanslick responded to its performance in Vienna enthusiastically: „It is one of his most beautiful works. A genuine Dvořák.“ The String Quintet op. 97, albeit only six years younger, presents a completely „different Dvořák“. After the Symphony from the New World and the “American” quartet, the string quintet is the composer’s third work written in America.

Besides drawing inspiration from the music of the Native American tribe of the Iroquois which he heard in Spillville in the summer of 1893, he built the third movement around a theme that he had previously considered using in a proposal for a new American anthem.

And Hanslick’s testimonial? „This is probably the simplest, most natural and happiest music composed since Haydn’s times. The ear enjoys it with an easy-going attitude and the spirit is not bored for a single moment.“ Pavel Haas Quartet is at home in Dvořák’s music – to quote the Sunday Times, „In this repertoire, they are simply matchless today.“

Reviews

November 2017

Throughout the slow movement, the playing of the solo lines is captivating…The Haas Quartet with Boris Giltburg provide both relaxation and a strong sense of purposeful energy…Excellently recorded, these performances are among the most memorable I have encountered in recent years.

November 2017

It is the happiest of reunions and their sense of shared purpose is evident from the very start...Giltburg is likewise completely at one with the quartet, who set off full of sighing pathos...From the off, they make the music their own...the sense of story-telling is very persuasive...Another triumphant addition to the Pavel Haas’s already Award-laden discography.

20th October 2017

Something that always takes my breath away with this quartet is the range and breadth of dynamics and tone colours that they produce, as well as the perfect blend of sound that they make whilst still allowing individual members’ contributions to come to the fore when required...[Giltburg] genuinely feels like an organic part of the group, never dominating unnecessarily, and yet coming to the fore when appropriate.

22nd October 2017

the Czech disc proposes the Russian-born Giltburg, a virtuoso “soloist” in the Piano Quintet, like Sviatoslav Richter before him. He clearly feels this dancing, soulful music as personally as his Czech colleagues in an exhilarating performance...This life-enhancing music is a tonic.

15th October 2017

The playing is breathtakingly good, each performer maintaining their own personality and yet working together to conjure a special magic, whether in the sparkling “furiant” of the piano quintet No 2 in A major, Op 81 (with Boris Giltburg at his most mercurial), or the dreamy, song-like opening movement of the string quintet in E flat major.

Record Review 21st October 2017

This is joyous, generous music making.

Dvorak: Quintets Op. 81 & 97

CD

Contents

Recording of the Week, Dvořák Quintets from the Pavel Haas Quartet, with Boris Giltburg and Pavel Nikl