NDR Chamber Music Concert

It is appealing to juxtapose two of the central pieces of Dvořák’s chamber music, of which the Piano Quintet op. 81 is probably the best known, in a concert – this was the idea behind the composition of the programme. Composed during Dvořák’s »Slavic period« in the 1870s, the quartet impressively combines suggestions from the stricter compositional style of Brahms – Dvořák’s declared role model – with the typical Czech folk style and deliberately simple, folk-like music-making. There is an obvious tendency to sing the melodies out widely, especially in the night piece of the second movement.