Taking a break last night from Bach's Inventions, I listened to an ASV disc I've had for about two years; it's devoted to the music of Vitezslav Novak (1870-1949) and contains the piano quintet opus 12, 13 Slovak folksongs, and Songs of Winter Night for solo piano. A few months back, John Smyth posted about his enthusiasm for this disc, although he stated a preference for Novak's orchestral works. At that time I responded how I also liked the chamber works of Novak. Since those postings, the appeal of chamber music of Novak's general time period has increased substantially for me. So, as I listened to the ASV disc last night, I found the piano quintet a stunning and beautiful work on a par with the Philip Scharwenka piano quintet which I reviewed very favorably a couple of weeks ago. The Slovak folksongs are also very worthy compositions. The vocal soloist, Magdalena Kozena, has a lovely voice, and the pianist Radoslav Kvapil has this music in his veins. However, I still do not appreciate the Songs of a Winter Night also performed by Kvapil. I recognize the excellence of his performance, but the music itself really turns me off. If there's any type of music that I find overly emotional and over-wrought, it's romantic solo piano music. Although I consider Liszt the role-model for this type of music, Novak's fits in that category very well. Perhaps it's that I can't identify with the huge outpouring of emotions or don't understand where these emotions spring from. Whatever, listening to this music tends to put me in a bad mood routinely, the same response I have to gospel music, pop ballads, and funny/humorous music in general. Getting back to the ASV disc, I greatly enjoy two of the three works, and that's good enough to make the recording a "keeper". If you enjoy chamber music of this period, like me, and also like solo piano music of the period, the ASV disc could well be one of your favorites. The Kocian String Quartet do the honors in the piano quintet and sound thoroughly idiomatic. The catalog number is 998. Don Satz [log in to unmask]