Emerson String Quartet : CD : Old World

Tracks

	Disc 1
	String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major Op. 51 B92 (Antonín Dvorák):
	1. 1. Allegro ma non troppo 11:06
	2. 2. Dumka. Andante con moto 07:29
	3. 3. Romanze. Andante con moto 06:20
	4. 4. Finale. Allegro assai 07:08
	String Quartet No. 11 in C major Op. 61 B121 (Antonín Dvorák):
	5. 1. Allegro 14:46
	6. 2. Poco adagio e molto cantabile 07:59
	7. 3. Scherzo: Allegro vivo 08:23
	8. 4. Finale: Vivace 07:58
	Disc 2
	String Quintet in E flat op. 97 (Antonín Dvorák):
	1. 1. Allegro non tanto 09:13
	2. 2. Allegro vivo 05:45
	3. 3. Larghetto 09:23
	4. 4. Finale (Allegro giusto) 08:16
	Cypresses B152 (Cyprise) (Antonín Dvorák):
	5. 1. Moderato 03:58
	6. 2. Allegro ma non troppo 02:14
	7. 3. Andante con moto 02:18
	8. 4. Poco Adagio 04:27
	9. 5. Andante 02:56
	10. 6. Andante moderato 02:20
	11. 7. Andante con moto 01:54
	12. 8. Lento 02:59
	13. 9. Moderato 02:36
	14. 10. Andante maestoso 01:51
	15. 11. Allegro scherzando 02:24
	16. 12. Allegro animato 02:44
	Disc 3
	String Quartet No. 13 in G major Op. 106 B192 (Antonín Dvorák):
	1. 1. Allegro moderato 09:50
	2. 2. Adagio ma non troppo 10:12
	3. 3. Molto Vivace 06:38
	4. 4. Andante sostenuto: Allegro con fuoco 10:26
	String Quartet No. 14 in A flat major Op. 105 B193 (Antonín Dvorák):
	5. 1. Adagio ma non troppo 07:47
	6. 2. Molto vivace 06:48
	7. 3. Lento e molto cantabile 07:32
	8. 4. Allegro non tanto 09:40

reviews

Danielle

Boston.com Review

There are two important words you won’t find anywhere on the front cover of this 3-CD set excluding a paper stick-em: Antonín Dvorák. It must be an arty thing. You’re are supposed to guess it from the title. That’s New World as in “New World Symphony,’’ orchestral staple. But with the first few bars of the String Quartet No. 10, you recognize the joyous, springy step of this Czech composer who spent a few years (1892-95) years in the United States. It’s like being plunged into a forest of pines and birch and aspen, with a warm wind blowing and birds twittering and where it’s rarely nighttime. This 3-disc collection (priced as if it were two discs) by the world’s premiere string quartet includes Dvorák’s mature quartets (Nos. 10, 11, 13, 14), brightened with two unusual additions: the “American’’ String Quintet, Op. 97 (with Paul Neubauer as the extra viola), written in a Czech community in Spillville, Iowa, where Dvorak spent the summer of 1893, and “Cypresses,’’ the composer’s exquisite arrangement of an early set of love songs (and clearly done for love, not a commission). The box title might lead you to expect the “American’’ Quartet (No. 12) as well, but the Emerson recorded that in the 1980s; these are all first recordings. (Their “American’’ is available on a Deutsche Grammophon Masters CD.) At this stage in their career (the Emerson players got together in 1976) there is nothing they cannot do. Listening to them is like watching a master painter who knows instinctively where to put a daub of paint. If anything, the naivete of Dvorák’s music inspires a fresh playfulness in their playing. Solo voices sing out with vibrato and portamento, then fall back into an infinite variety of rich textures. (Listen to the interplay of first violin and tutti in Cypresses, No. 6.) The recording acoustic of the American Academy of Arts & Letters in New York provides a warm envelope in which nothing is lost. - DAVID PERKINS7/14/2010 11:21 AM (GMT-08:00)

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