Dvořák: Piano Quintet, Op. 81 & String Quintet, Op. 97

Review by James Leonard As fine and as persuasive a pair of Dvorák chamber music performances as has ever been put on a single disc, this 2004 recording of the glorious Piano Quintet in A major and the transcendent String Quintet in E flat major by the Leipziger Streichquartett with pianist Christian Zacharias would be a welcome addition to any shelf, even one already loaded down with Dvorák. Their Piano Quintet is strong-muscled, open-hearted, and essentially dramatic. Their String Quintet is richly textured, radiantly colored, and quintessentially lyric. Although there have been great recordings of both these works in the past, anyone who already admires, say, the Clifford Curzon/Budapest Quartet of the Piano Quintet or the Raphael Ensemble of the String Quintet will be glad to put this on the shelf with them. And anyone who does not already know these pieces will be thrilled, truly, honestly, deeply, and profoundly thrilled, to hear them for the first time. MDG catches all the deep, burnished tone of the instruments in a warm, full acoustic.