Dvořák: String Quartet, Op. 105; String Quintet, Op. 97 "American"

Soon after starting up in Budapest in 1975, the Takács Quartet became world-famous, and despite a later move to America and personnel changes, that reputation has never slipped. You can hear why in these recordings, where every shade of Dvořák’s non-stop musical invention is perfectly captured.

In 1892, Dvořák went with his family to America, to teach at New York’s National Conservatory. They also visited the town of Spillville in Iowa, where there was a Czech community, and some Native American musicians came to play. Dvořák’s instant and delighted response was his String Quintet Op. 97; the second movement starts with the second viola imitating native drumming (a moment brilliantly captured here by Lawrence Power).

Back home in Prague two years later, Dvořák composed the String Quartet Op. 105; the musical mood here is more restless, shifting between darkness and light, as the Takács players beautifully convey.