Don Satz:

>Has Steve or anyone else heard the Pacifica Quartet's recording on Cedille
>of Dvorak's string chamber music? Their performances don't sit well with
>me compared to the Prague Quartet's cycle of the Dvorak String Quartets
>on DG.

Sorry, I haven't but I can't resist the opportunity of asking what you
think of the Prazak Quartet's interpretation of four of Dvorak's late
string quartets: op.51 B92, op.96 B179, op. 106 B193, op. 105 B193, -
or of 'inviting' you to listen...  They are on Praga.

I find their interpretations...  inspired, for want of a better word -
precise, clear, and close to the source.  They open up the music, they
don't confine it to the manner of a period, a style, they reveal hidden
links, yet they never betray.  And they play as one, the quartet becomes
a single instrument, played by a single hand, a single mind.  There is
the warmth and intimacy one imagines within Czech homes or circles.

Praga sound is clear and well-defined as always.

Martinu, while writing his seventh, once wrote: "...one feels at home
with the quartet, within its intimate, happy bounds.  It is raining
outside, night is falling, but these four voices do not care, they are
free, independent, they are what they want to be.  They create a balanced
ensemble, a sort of "new entity", a harmonious whole..."

His words often spring to mind when I listen to the Prazaks.  And it so
happens that they have recorded Martinu's seventh, H 314 - on Praga, once
again.

Regards,

Christine Labroche