Repertoire: Dvořák String Quartets--The GREATEST Set 

You make an excellent point about Dvorak being an all-around genius - symphonies (despite my personal distaste for the 7th), quartets, winds and (snare roll please)...tone poems! I think Dvorak is a criminally underrated tone poet. I could listen to The Water Goblin every day. I realize this makes me a weirdo, but it’s true nonetheless.

Thanks David, finally someome who sees that 4th quartet is a freaking masterpiece!

recently went to purchase the American and it happened to come with the 13th. I listen to the 13th as much as the 12th if not more. Look forward to listening to his other 12 for the first time.

Love his String Quartet No.9 (a beautiful work) and the unjustly neglected Wind Serenade too! Cheers

Great video. I love Dvorak. He was such a genius tunesmith.

i love dvorak and his string quartets make the best company when you alone at night or anytime...

Dave, thanks so much for opening my eyes to Dvorak. Up until recently, with the exception of the Stabat Mater (which speaks to my soul), I maintained a blind eye to his work, and just heard it as "generic romantic." How strange, given that I love people like Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Janacek, whose voices seem completely distinctive to me! Now I'm listening to a lot of Dvorak, trying to get his voice under my skin. These quartets will be a major part of that process. (The development section of the first movement of #1 has already shocked me by its greatness.) I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for your videos, so you really do have my gratitude.

I have the Prague String Quartet complete set and they're phenomenal.

What a wonderful talk; I hope it turned many, many viewers on to this glorious music. I agree with your ranking of the three cycles. I grew up with the Prague Quartet cycle on Lp, and only realized its limitation when I heard the Panocha. (In all fairness, I think the Prague's heaviness is exaggerated by their recorded sound, which is so resonant that we could almost be listening to transcriptions for string orchestra.) I really love the Vlach Qt. Prague's cycle on Naxos single discs. They certainly don't dethrone the Panocha, but their more trenchant rustic approach makes for an enlightening counterpoint to the Panocha's elegance and flow: listening to either one often sends me scurrying to the other. Not a bad way to spend an hour or two! And my Desert Island Discs of Dvorak quartets? Without question, the Kocian Quartet's two Denon CDs of Qts. 10, 12, 13, & 14. If only they'd recorded a complete cycle.

Love those Cypresses! I have 6 of the quartets on 2 old Vox boxes. I’ll have to find the others. David, you’re a great champion of Dvorak’s genius. I appreciate that very much! I’ll have to get that Panocha set!

I have the Dvořák string quartets with the Prag string quartet on vinyl. A truly lovely set. ❤

interesting topic, what makes a good tune. But indeed, it's quite useless to talk about it for long, some have it, some don't. But there is one element that is quite essential in a composition for me, and thats the suprise element, something you don't expect, surprise in rhythm, harmony, development etc. And ofcourse the tune itself must appeal.Haydn was a master in that matter. Great stuff, the Dvorak quartets!!

I gave a copy of the American to a friend of mine, a fellow film person. He agreed that parts of the first movement sound like the score to every other western made during the golden age.

Returned to this video to decide, which one to hear. Now it's no. 4 (with the Stamitz Quartet).

Another great discussion! I don’t have them all, but really enjoy the ones I have: Panocha in 10 and 13, Takacs in 14 (their earlier recording for Decca, superior to their remake for Hyperion) and best of all, the Skampa in the American along with the American String Quintet.

Greetings David. Working my way through all your chats. One per evening. (Will skip the Schostakovitch talks, though. Ugh.) You are so right about, Dvorak. He is consistently wonderful. The Wood Dove. The Nocturne for strings. The Cypresses. The Fifth and Sixth symphonies. The piano concerto. I could go and on... Best, David.

The Panocha performances are lovely -- such a suave sound and elegant style. Nonetheless, I marginally prefer the Vlach series on Naxos (available only as separates, it seems). Their style is a bit more brusque, with sharper accents and crisper rhythms, though they can also be sweet as honey. And strictly personally, I prefer their first violinist's sound to that of the Panocha's. Anyhow, thanks for the nudge to reacquaint myself to some of the early quartets, for which I know have greater appreciation.

Your advocacy of Dvorak makes me very happy. I've always been a bit wary of the quartets but I'm fired up now. I recently grappled with a couple of the operas, Dmitrij, and King and Charcoal Burner. I have to say, neither struck me as first rate Dvorak. You don't review much opera. How about doing an overview of them? Or a video about the first four symphonies, which I have never liked as much as the ones that followed.

I have the later quartets and Cypresses by the new Vlach Quartet of Prague. I like them, especially no. 10. Unfortunately, they are not in a single box. I may have t get the earlier ones.

Nice touch that the video ends al 18:41...

Are you planning to address in your RU-vid series the Quartets by Schostakovich? If so, surely you are about to recommend the Pacifica Quartet version, but I am sure also that your insight will be interesting and, frankly, funny, like: "Nobody cares who was the Soviet Minister of Culture at the time, the stuff that matters is the Music!"

Hello dave! Are bruckner quartets great? They worth a review? Thank you so much for the great work!!!

This is what writes an individual, listener of the integral Panocha : "But I am surprised at being the first to comment on the distractingly bad recorded sound. What I object to are the shrill sound from the first violin and tubby sound from the cello. I turned down the treble control by 6 dB to get some relief. The engineering crew let down the musicians -- and the listeners -- in this one" What do you think about that ? Début du comparatif à 14 mn. Thank you for all 🙏🙏

Mozart possibly?? That is an interesting comparison though, it does seem there weren't any other composers at the end of the 19th century with the range of Dvorak. Hadn't thought about that. But after Beethoven, the greatest string quartet composer was Shostakovich.

Another interesting discussion. I'll have to round out my collection of the Panocha quartets, I have a couple discs already. Are their other Dvorak chamber collections, also now boxed up, as good? And thanks for organizing your talks into playlists.

When he is talking about the 7th and 8th quartets around 9:10, the section he plays is from 7th string quartet in A minor’s finale! Not No. 8 in E major.

The early quartets... A bit rambling, no real dead spots, spontaneously flowing... Sounds like great Road Music David!

Such a pity the Chilingirian series never made it to a complete cycle. Don't know if they lost interest or the plug was pulled from the project, but what there is is delectable.

I once was at a concert by the Borodin quartet, playing Schubert. They didnt look happy either, they didnt connect to each other, and so it sounded, stiff...very disappointing.