Search - Rainer Zepperitz, Peter Steiner, Giusto Cappone :: Dvorak: The Complete String Quintets

The performances and recordings disappoint

Harvey J. Schugar | Piscataway, NJ USA | 12/18/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This inexpensive two CD set presents four wonderful Dvorak quintets and one sextet. I own the original Philips LP performances of the piano quintet and a late string quintet. The string players did not attain those idiomatic Czech cross rhythms and phrasing required for my fullest listening pleasure. The fine piano performance of Stephen Kovacevich (he was known as Stephen Bishop on the LP) was closer to this ideal. Unfortunately, serious sonic flaws of the LP persist on the CD. The upper register of the violins remains thin and unpleasant, and the balance between the strings and piano levels in the opus 81 quintet is not good. The piano sound is far too dominant. My suggestion is to look elsewhere for recordings that better capture these beauties of Dvorak."

You'll get what you pay for--a letdown

klavierspiel | TX, USA | 04/09/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Philips' "twofer" CD releases include some genuine bargains, classic performances at budget prices, such as Colin Davis' 1966 "Messiah." At first glance this compilation seems like a contender, with two and a half hours of some of Dvorak's most beautiful chamber music, along with lesser-known but equally worthy works, performed by an ensemble with a famous name, along with a distinguished guest artist, pianist Stephen Kovacevich.In the event, only Kovacevich's beautifully shaped contribution to the Piano Quintet, Op. 81 lives up to expectations. The other performances are uniformly marked by scrappy, out-of-tune playing and thin, shrill tone from the members of the Berlin Philharmonic Octet. It's hard to tell how much of the acoustic stems from the actual performances, how much from the possibly poor sound of the original analog recording, and how much might be due to the CD transfer. It doesn't really matter. Better, if more expensive, versions of all of these pieces are available on CD, particularly of the delightful Quintet in E-flat and Piano Quintet. Spend a little more and get performances that will stand the test of time, as these have not."