Search - Antonin Dvorak, Panocha Quartet :: Dvorák: String Quartets (Complete) [Box Set]

A wonderful listening experience

jsa | San Diego, CA United States | 07/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Panocha Quartet, which was formed in 1968, began recording the Dvorak quartets in 1983 & finished up in 1999 - fourteen quartets plus the "Cypresses" were laid down over sixteen years. The musicians, who have played together since their student days at the Prague Conservatory, demonstrate a complete understanding of & identification with the Dvorakian idiom. There is a maturity & joy to their playing that is truly a pleasure to hear.



Anybody who loves Dvorak will appreciate this music - even the early quartets have some glorious writing. Just listen to the last movement of the first quartet (op. 2) which has all the hallmarks of great Dvorak. Of course the early works are not as inspired as the later ones, but because this complete cycle presents the quartets in chronological order, a feature that I particularly like, you can follow Dvorak as his work matured.



There are other complete cycles of the Dvorak quartets available, most notably the Prague Quartet set on DGG, however, I am most familiar with the Vlach Quartet's effort on Naxos. I had several of their discs, but replaced them with this set when I decided I wanted all of the quartets. I went with the Panocha Quartet after a good deal of research, including culling through reviews that appeared when the individual discs were originally released. The critical consensus was extremely positive: Classics Today called this "the finest recorded set in one box."



Warmly recommended to all chamber music (and Dvorak) lovers."

Spectacular rendering of Dvorak's finest gems

Lubomir Masar | Houston, TX | 10/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording of Dvorak's quartets makes me use words "ultimate", "spectacular" or "unparalleled". You can follow Dvorak's genius as it had matured quartet after quartet ... until the "post-American" ones: warm joy of his music cannot leave you untouched - passions spring from musician's heart and engulf yours totally.



I heard several individual recordings of his quartets ("American", 10th and 11th), but Panocha - in my view - is the best: crispy sound and overall recording of these masterpieces make them a must for every lover of Dvorak, a man who probably wrote music with the same lightness as we other folks breathe."