Don replies graciously to my irritable remark:

>>I find such a performance view perfectly valid and, indeed, a welcome
>>alternative to the 'butcher's boy, warbling his native woodnotes wild"
>>picture of the composer.
>
>I wasn't trying to suggest that Dvorak should be performed as if he was
>carving up beef in the woods.  However, I do much prefer Dvorak's music to
>be presented with 'exuberance, edge, and guts'.  Most important, I'd like
>the performance to be evocative of a love of nature, not of a sleek
>high-rise office building.

Well, I've heard very sophisticated performances that I enjoy very much,
although I would also say I invariably found them rhythmically exciting
as well.  I don't think there's a mutually exclusive principle here.

>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.

Don't know the Pacifica, but I have heard some of the Prague.  I liked what
I heard.

Steve Schwartz