Smetana/Dvorák String Quartets
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 3/1992
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 54
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 754215-2

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
String Quartet No. 12, 'American' |
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Alban Berg Qt Antonín Dvořák, Composer |
String Quartet No. 1, 'From my life' |
Bedřich Smetana, Composer
Alban Berg Qt Bedřich Smetana, Composer |
Composer or Director: Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana
Label: Ottavo
Magazine Review Date: 3/1992
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 52
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: OTRC69028

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
String Quartet No. 1, 'From my life' |
Bedřich Smetana, Composer
Bedřich Smetana, Composer Orlando Quartet |
String Quartet No. 12, 'American' |
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer Orlando Quartet |
Composer or Director: Antonín Dvořák
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Telarc
Magazine Review Date: 3/1992
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 57
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: CD80283

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
String Quartet No. 12, 'American' |
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer Cleveland Qt |
String Quartet No. 14 |
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer Cleveland Qt |
Author: Stephen Johnson
The Orlando try a little too hard for my liking in the Dvorak, and devices like the traditional molto affettuoso gear change for the first movement second subject strike me as well past their sell-by-date—and why no exposition repeat? The Smetana, however, is compelling and utterly fresh. The Polka dances, the Largo theme is truly touching (for this I can easily put up with the cello swoops in the opening bars) and the finale's crisis point comes as quite a shock—the violin's high E really shrieks—after which the coda's gradual fragmentation is grimly convincing. A slight abrasiveness in the recorded sound is easily tamed.
For all my reservations about the Orlando's American, I still prefer it to the ferocious Cleveland version—hard-driven in its outer movements and far from friendly in the Lento and Scherzo, despite instances such as the soulful cello at the end of the slow movement. Fortunately the A flat Quartet is less pressurized and much of it emerges very well, especially the homely, songful Lento, which acquires a telling expressive edge here. There's too much edge however in the second movement trio, and too little sense of rhythmic freedom in the five-against-four-against-three patterns—the phrases refuse to open out. The best version by far of this very likeable work is still the Prague Quartet on DG, and that comes only (alas!) as part of the complete, nine-CD set.'
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