Not surprisingly, there are quite a few records coupling these two most popular of Czech string quartets, recent ones among them being by the Alban Berg Quartet and the Orlando Quartet. However, the works’ very different characters do not make for a similarity of approach. The Alban Berg Quartet found Dvorak’s work much to their taste, and were less at ease in Smetana; here, by contrast, the Panocha Quartet, who after all have the music in their blood, seem less at ease with Dvorak. And it is a feeling of ease that this ever-delightful work must communicate, for all the wistfulness that lies within the warm melodies, and for their mood of what is in the literal sense nostalgia – the longing for a return home. The Panochas attack it with enthusiasm, but attack seems to be too much the nature of their approach: the playing is tense, with fast tempos screwing up the tension still further, and a close, somewhat fierce recording acoustic emphasizing the wish for excitement as the most important quality. It is only really in the finale that all this comes off as it should.
In Smetana’s Quartet, the greater innate tension of the music suits this manner better, though the players also have the humour to enjoy the bouncy rhythms of the second-movement Polka. The opening viola solo is strongly delivered, and the echo of this near the end is movingly handled. The whole of this dreadful climax, when the high E signals Smetana’s encroaching tinnitus, is played with a bleak fervour which makes the final collapse the more affecting. This is certainly a very rewarding performance.'