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The Emerson Quartet here takes on two of the major chamber music works produced by Czech composers, Antonin Dvorak's "American" Quartet (1893) and Bedrich Smetana's "From my life" Quartet (1876). The Emerson Quartet is an excellent ensemble and almost always provides good interpretations. On this disc, they do a very nice job on the Dvorak but I thought the Smetana was only a satisfactory interpretation - not better than that. I also found the DG engineering on this 1984 session to be only acceptable, with a little too much digital brightness. So this is a reasonably good release but not an exceptional one.
The Dvorak "American" Quartet was produced during his trip to the United States, at the same time as the artist's most famous single piece, the "New World" Symphony. It is one of Dvorak's most popular works and, though I may have been over-exposed to it over the years, I certainly understand the appeal: the catchy melodies, the lively use of textures and consistent rhythmic interest make for enduring popularity. The melodies are all based on a pentatonic pattern (5 notes are selected out of the normal 12-tone scale) which tightly bids the music together. The Emerson present an attractive, engaged rendition of the "American" Quartet.
The second composition here is from two decades earlier, Bedrich Smetana's first quartet, titled "From my life." (Dvorak played viola in the quartet's premiere, by the way.) In an autobiographical mode, the movements present a first outburst of youth, then Smetana's love of dance, the third movement covering his romance and marriage to his wife and the finale his maturity and then, in a dramatic coda, the affliction of an aural illness that sounds very much like a severe form of tinnitus, presented as a high-pitched whine in the first violin. While this work is by far the most famous chamber music written by Smetana, I have a personal preference for the passionate Piano trio and the unique, condensed 2nd quartet. I am critical of the Emerson's take on the Smetana. I think there is a lack of feeling in the music combined with a very un-Emerson-like mushiness about the structural cohesion.
So it's a pretty good recording but not an ideal one.
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