Dvorak's Slavonic Dances owe their existence to Brahms's publisher, who thought that the older composer's Hungarian Dances might usefully have a companion. Dvorak produced the first eight in 1878, and such was their success that Simrock asked him to write some more. For a long time he resisted, saying that ''to do the same thing twice is devilish difficult'', but eventually in 1886 he wrote the remaining eight, saying, ''I think they will be completely different''. In fact, this is so: and while the first set abounds with extrovert peasant forcefulness, the second is more reflective. And as JW writes in his booklet note to this Philips issue, ''if there was no return to the former freshness, there was a gain in subtlety and range''.
Accordingly, one would expect the athletic and energetic Labeque sisters to score higher in the first half of this programme. There's vigour a-plenty here, and unless you set your volume control with precaution, the very first C major chords of track 1 bid fair to blow you out of your room. But if you tame the initial chords, the A major episode which follows at 0'16'' is much too muted, so that those first chords must be accepted. Of course this dance is a Furiant, but listeners who like mellow piano sound should know that the attack here and elsewhere is sometimes powerful indeed. Yet I must emphasize that the Labeques are never just rough and that they can shape a tune with affection. Good examples of this occur in No. 2 in the first set of dances and No. 8 in the second (though I hear a trace of vocalizing in both) and also No. 2 in the latter set, a deeply expressive Mazurka.
Even so, these efficient performances have less charm than I would like, and they miss some of the rustic naivety of these pieces written for domestic performance, though we come near to it in No. 6 of the first set. Otherwise they offer variety from one dance to the next and the texturing in quieter pieces is a model of its kind. Indeed, the playing is convincing on its own terms and the Labeques' impeccable ensemble is complemented by well matched pianos. Peter Noke and Helen Krizos (Hyperion) are also skilled pianists and play vividly, but they too fail to convey some of the warm, leisurely charm of this music and their forte sound, as recorded, is rather hard.'