Dvořák string quintets from Berlin

The grainy sound of the double bass makes for a briefly mysterious start to Dvořák’s Op.77 String Quintet. This is a form that the composer mastered, the first to do so since Mendelssohn, and his first mature work in the form predates that of Brahms by seven years. Not only that, but Dvořák was able to work the possibilities of using five stringed instruments, using the conventional instrumenatation of two violins, two violas and cello in his first published work, the A minor quartet Op.1, and also in his later Op.97 work, shot through as it is with old American-inspired melodies.

Op.77, however, is more radical for its inclusion of a double bass, and this new recording from Berlin does it proud. It has all the attributes a successful Dvořák interpretation should have – vibrant rhythms, feeling but not too much sentiment in the slow movement, and a rugged texture in the first movement in particular, with the extra weight offered by the bass section fully exploited. It also inflects Dvořák’s melodies with authentic charm and resoluteness, meaning the performance carries some real substance.

As with much of this composer’s output, the melodies are the strong point, a facet the Berliners never fail to bring home. The motif of two chords that determines the music’s direction in the first movement is well played on each occurrence, the key to each of the sections that follow, while there are some beautiful moments of duet playing between the violinists Thomas Timm and Romano Tommasini. There is a nice heft to the chords in the Scherzo, too, though this is in part checked by a heavy pull on the breaks before the trio, which itself feels a bit slow to start with.

The accompanying pieces include the Nocturne, more often heard for string orchestra. Here it has a lovely weight and poise, not too much on the schmaltz but still beautifully romantic, with softly murmuring inner parts. It is well caught by the engineers, too – close but not too personal.

The only regret is that the quintet miss an opportunity to include Dvořák’s other masterpiece in the form, the Op.97 Quintet in E flat major. Instead we get the Scherzo which makes for a nice complement on the back of the Nocturne in the same key, but feels like short change indeed when the disc ends at just over 45 minutes. There would have been plenty of room to include the full work, despite its different instrumentation – but here the Scherzo is rather pointlessly arranged for the quintet with the bass. Well performed as it is, it feels like a loose end.

Hopefully the Berlin Philharmonic Quintet will redress this balance with a disc of that work and the Op.1 – both of which provide illustrations of an aptitude for string writing that served Dvořák well throughout his compositional career. All the quintets deserve more air time – so this new recording helps that cause!