“This is one of the most delightful Compact Discs to Come along so far. If you don’t like it, you probably just don’t like music.” CD Review
It was during a period of increasing recognition-his first flush of international success-that Dvorak wrote both the String Quintet, Op. 77 and the Serenade for Winds and Strings, Op. 44. There is more than a little daring in Dvorak’s having chosen the almost unheard-of instrumental combination of a string quartet and doublebass for the Quintet, for the work was to be his entry into a competition sponsored by the Prague Artistic Circle. Competitions often tend to inhibit outlandish displays of originality, but Dvorak seems to have reveled in his choice, and wrote the work quickly. The three-man jury awarded him the prize unanimously, citing the work’s “distinction of theme, technical skill in polyphonic composition, mastery of form and… knowledge of the instruments.”
Gerard Schwarz, conductor
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
DDD
Antonin Dvorak:
Serenade in E, Op. 22
Waldesruhe (Silent Woods)
Notturno in B, Op. 40
