0:00 – 1. Allegro, ma non tanto
11:01 – 2. Dumka: Andante con moto
25:49 – 3. Scherzo (Furiant): molto vivace
30:24 – 4. Finale: Allegro
Fifteen years after his Piano Quintet Op. 5, Dvorak decided to write his second work for the same instrumental ensemble, in the same key. Yet this is where all similarities between the two works end. While the first of them was the product of a time when Dvorak was still trying to find himself as a composer, Op. 81 is a testimony of his supremacy in his chosen field. The main impetus for writing the work may have been the fact that, shortly before, Dvorak had been revising some of his juvenilia, including his first piano quintet from 1872, and he perhaps now decided to create some kind of more mature counterpart to it. The Piano Quintet No. 2 was first performed on 6 January 1888 at one of the concerts organised by the artists’ association Umelecka beseda at Prague’s Rudolfinum. The premiere of the work was extremely well received by the critics. Josef Bohuslav Foerster, for instance, described the new work in Narodni listy as follows: “This is a work of rare value, innovative thematic material and imposing depth of treatment. One cannot show a preference for any movement, since the warm Allegro and poetic Dumka stand their ground as well as the spirited Furiant and the capricious, jocose Finale. The piece encapsulates what we have come to expect from Dvorak: a wonderful sound and numerous intriguing and original instrumental effects.” About one month after the premiere, Prague was visited by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Dvorak’s new quintet was included on the programme at one of the soirees organised in his honour. Tchaikovsky later noted in his diary: “They played quartets by Smetana and Kovarovic, and the quintet by Dvorak. I found the latter very amiable and I very much liked his quintet.” In the very first year of its premiere, the quintet was performed in Prague on several occasions and was also presented in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg and twice in London where, in subsequent years, it was to become one of Dvorak’s most frequently performed works. The piece was published by Simrock in the same year, bearing a dedication to university professor Bohdan Neureuther, a leading patron of young musicians in Prague. (www.antonin-dvorak.cz)
Composer – Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Piano - Arthur Rubinstein
Ensemble – Guarneri Quartet (violin – Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley; viola – Michael Tree; cello – David Soyer)
Year of recording – 1971