Dvorak's Den

[Mozart]

Anyone else like the op 5 quintet? I find it to be better of the 2 piano quintets, but maybe I'm an idiot.

[Israfel the Black]

Anyone else like the op 5 quintet? I find it to be better of the 2 piano quintets, but maybe I'm an idiot.

While I would not say I like it more than the Op. 81 Quintet, the Op. 5 is quite close in equaling it. The second movement is simply marvelous.

[jwinter]

Well, I'll give this thread a bump and see if anyone bites. 

Dvorak is a composer that has definitely grown on me over the past few months.  Up until then I admit I'd pretty much limited myself to the warhorses, but I've been listening to quite a bit of Dvorak lately, and enjoying it a lot. 

I notice that there are several orchestral works that I don't yet have on my shelves, notably:

Slavonic Rhapsodies
Serenades
Violin Concerto (I only have 1, Oistrakh/Ancerl, which is excellent but in old mono sound)

My chamber music selection is also fairly sparse -- right now I have the Brilliant Classics chamber music box:
,
the Prague Quartet set of the SQs
,
and another disc of Arthur Rubinstein in the Piano Quintet
.

Any recommendations for the rhapsodies, serenades, VC, or chamber music in general would be accepted and appreciated.  Thankee kindlee!

[hornteacher]

Any recommendations for the rhapsodies, serenades, VC, or chamber music in general would be accepted and appreciated.  Thankee kindlee!

For the violin concerto, I love this one:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=101483&album_group=5

its my favorite.......at least until Hilary records it.   

For the serenades:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=72494

[Drasko]

I notice that there are several orchestral works that I don't yet have on my shelves, notably:

Slavonic Rhapsodies
Serenades
Violin Concerto (I only have 1, Oistrakh/Ancerl, which is excellent but in old mono sound)

Admittedly in not very learned opinion but these should do.

[Brian]

I notice that there are several orchestral works that I don't yet have on my shelves, notably:

Slavonic Rhapsodies
Serenades
Violin Concerto (I only have 1, Oistrakh/Ancerl, which is excellent but in old mono sound)

Any recommendations for the rhapsodies, serenades, VC, or chamber music in general would be accepted and appreciated.  Thankee kindlee!

The Rhapsodies and Serenades are very lovely works indeed! For the Serenades I highly recommend this disc from Supraphon, brand-new and in superb performances (with exceptionally clear, lovely sound and a gorgeous cover):



The Suk piece is a lovely bonus, too.

As for the Violin Concerto, you may like Ancerl's other great recording, with violinist Josef Suk, though that stereo sound is not at all the best. Other great Concerto performances would include the Ehnes on Chandos, Kaler on Naxos, or, maybe my favorite on disc, Pavel Sporcl in a live recording on Supraphon. Best of all, though, is if you have Operashare access or know someone who does - the live rendition with Gil Shaham, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, is definitely my favorite. Haven't heard the Vengerov, but want to.

[Guido]

What is Dvorak's piano music like? Being a cellist I know of his utterly beautiful transcription of Silent Woods op.58 for cello and orchestra which was originally for piano four hands. None of his piano music is standard repertoire as far as I am aware - anything I should look out for?

[springrite]

What is Dvorak's piano music like? Being a cellist I know of his utterly beautiful transcription of Silent Woods op.58 for cello and orchestra which was originally for piano four hands. None of his piano music is standard repertoire as far as I am aware - anything I should look out for?

Well, the humoresque is kind of standard repertoire, if mostly for encore purposes.
His piano music sounds much like that other Czech composers at the time, from Fibich to Suk. Not sure if this description helps. Basically very well crafted music without much intended depth.

[hornteacher]

What is Dvorak's piano music like? Being a cellist I know of his utterly beautiful transcription of Silent Woods op.58 for cello and orchestra which was originally for piano four hands. None of his piano music is standard repertoire as far as I am aware - anything I should look out for?

Well the Slavonic Dances were first written for four hands and they are most definitely standard repertoire.  The Piano Quintet Op 81 is also one of the finest in the genre.

[Guido]

I feared as much springrite.

I am well aware of the chamber music including piano - great stuff, my personal favourite being the piano trio no.3.

[SonicMan46]

What is Dvorak's piano music like? Being a cellist I know of his utterly beautiful transcription of Silent Woods op.58 for cello and orchestra which was originally for piano four hands. None of his piano music is standard repertoire as far as I am aware - anything I should look out for?

Well, if you want an inexpensive introduction, then the Brilliant box below w/ Inna Poroshina is an option; 5-CD set of well performed and recorded piano music; just quite pleasant but nothing 'deep & dramatic', but that may have been the composer's intent?  Brief comments by David Hurwitz HERE  - 

[jwinter]

I'll second the rec for Poroshina's Dvorak -- well-played and recorded, it's quite pleasant and melodic, though I agree that the music is hardly going to crowd out Chopin or Beethoven from your affections. 

For the Slavonic Dances on 4-hand piano, I've quite enjoyed Igor & Renata Ardasev on Supraphon: 

[hornteacher]

For the Slavonic Dances on 4-hand piano, I've quite enjoyed Igor & Renata Ardasev on Supraphon: 

Second that choice.

[some guy]

Wow. A thread on Dvorak that's almost two years old, and only one mention of one opera. He wrote ten, of which nine have been recorded. I have those nine. (You do know that Dvorak did consider himself to be an opera composer, no?)

Two mentions for the Stabat Mater. And none for the Te Deum or the Requiem.

I have only one thing to say to you all: Boy are YOU in for a treat!!

[Mark G. Simon]

Rusalka is finally making headway in this country, and the "Song to the Moon" is now one of the most frequently sung vocal audition piece. All the young sopranos want to sing it. I enjoyed a performance of Rusalka at the Met a few years ago with Renee Fleming in the title role.

I also love The Devil and Kate and would love to see a good production of that. The orchestration calls for both bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet. I don't know if the contrabass clarinet plays in more than a couple minutes worth of music in the opera, but it's really a cool couple of minutes (the devil is describing to Kate this wonderful castle he's going to take her to).

I've been dithering over whether I want to buy his last opera Armida. I hear the libretto is really weak. But there's a certain lure in wanting to hear music written by Dvorak in the 20th century.

I have The Jakobin on LP, but somehow it doesn't really grip me. I think I'm going to like Armida better.

[some guy]

Wow, Mark, I envy you seeing Rusalka live with Renee Fleming. I'd willing give both eyeteeth for a chance to see that! (I saw it in Czech Republic recently, but with no one even close to as good as Ms. Fleming.)

Armida's good--the music, anyway, which is all I care about in opera, sorry! I'm a total wash when it comes to libretti. But I think the other great opera with Rusalka is Dmitrij. I think there may have only been one recording of that. You can find it, starting at 23,54 euros, on Amazon.de. (Arkiv doesn't list it at all. Amazon.com has only an out of print multivolume set that includes the overture, only.)

Just don't ask me about the libretto, that's all!

[Guido]

Have been listening to the string quartets no.13 and 14, op.106 and 105 respectivey (and rather oddly) - absolutely fantastic works - the finest quartets between Beethoven and Bartok? (or Janacek)? In fact they sound very similar in sections to the Janacek quartets and I imagine they were a strong influence on him. No.13 is particularly great...

With regards to Rusalka and Fleming, I seem to remember her saying that that was her favourite of all roles to sing.

I'd also be interested to hear more about the works post cello concerto and last string quartets... is there anything that matches the inspiration of these from the last 10 years of his life?

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Have been listening to the string quartets no.13 and 14, op.106 and 105 respectivey (and rather oddly) - absolutely fantastic works - the finest quartets between Beethoven and Bartok? (or Janacek)? In fact they sound very similar in sections to the Janacek quartets and I imagine they were a strong influence on him. No.13 is particularly great...

Those are 2 magnificent quartets and I'm inclined to agree with you about their stature. Almost Beethovenian in their sense of drama and overall architecture, but with that unique Dvorak voice.

I too am puzzled by the discrepancy between the numbers 

[Guido]

Those are 2 magnificent quartets and I'm inclined to agree with you about their stature. Almost Beethovenian in their sense of drama and overall architecture, but with that unique Dvorak voice.

I too am puzzled by the discrepancy between the numbers 

I think a lot of Dvorak's pieces have weird opus numbers - sometimes they are quite far from their proper chronology... still this seems a bizarre one.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I think a lot of Dvorak's pieces have weird opus numbers - sometimes they are quite far from their proper chronology... still this seems a bizarre one.

In that particular case, probably just a printer's mixup. But it is known that D's publisher (Simrock?) deliberately assigned misleadlingly high numbers to some works; he thought they would sell better if they were viewed as "mature." So I've heard, anyway.

My general Dvorak rule is to avoid most stuff with an opus # lower than 50.