Taking temporary leave from his colleagues of the Beaux Arts Trio, Menahem Pressler joins the Emerson Quartet in powerful, intense accounts of these two magnificent works. If the Piano Quintet with its wealth of memorable melody is by far the better-known, Pressler and the Emersons demonstrate how the Piano Quartet, sketched immediately after the other work and completed two years later in 1889, is just as rich in invention, in some ways even more distinctive in its thematic material. If there is one movement that above all proves a revelation, it is the Lento of the Quartet. Opening with a duet for cello and piano, it is here played with a rapt, hushed concentration to put it among the very finest of Dvorak inspirations. The following grazioso movement, almost like a Viennese waltz, is then given a delicious schmaltzy flavour, with one whole-tone motif particularly striking, not to mention another passage where the piano is made to sound like a musical-box.
The performance of the Quintet, too, is comparably positive in its characterization, and it is hardly a reservation that in both works the rival versions I have listed have formidable claims too. In particular, many will prefer the easier, even warmer reading from Domus in the Piano Quartet, which is neatly if not so generously coupled with the much earlier Piano Quartet in D, Op. 23.
In this music it is not always the high-powered reading that makes its mark most persuasively, and the Hyperion sound for Domus is far warmer than the DG New York recording for the new disc, which gives an unpleasant edge to high violins, making the full ensemble abrasive. None the less, if the volume is curbed, one can readily enjoy these exceptionally thrustful and strong readings of two of Dvorak's most striking chamber works.'