BaL 10.01.15 - Dvorak: String Quartet no. 12 "American"

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

0930
Building a Library
Robert Philip compares recordings of Dvorak's much-loved String Quartet no. 12, known as the American Quartet, and makes a personal recommendation.

Available recordings:

Amadeus Quartet
Apollon Quartet
Arioso Quartett
Berliner Philharmoniker Quartet
Brodsky Quartet
Budapest String Quartet
Carmina Quartet
Cavani Quartet (download)
Cleveland Quartet
Cypress String Quartet
Duke Quartet (download)
Emerson String Quartet
Quatuor Enesco
Griller Quartet
Hagen Quartett
Hagen Quartett (DVD/Blu-ray)
Hollywood String Quartet
Hungarian String Quartet
Janáček Quartet
Jerusalem Quartet
Keller Quartet
Kontra Quartet
Kumho Asiana String Quartet
Lindsay Quartet
Lipkind Quartet (download)
Ma'alot Quintett
Miró Quartet (download)
Quintette Moragues
Moyzes Quartet (download)
Netherlands String Quartet
Panocha Quartet
Pavel Haas Quartet
Prague String Quartet
Prazak Quartet
Sacconi Quartet
Schidlof Quartet
Ševcík-Lhotský Quartet
Serafin String Quartet
Simon Bolivar String Quartet
Stamitz Quartet
Talich Quartet
Tokyo String Quartet
Vanbrugh Quartet
Vlach Quartet Prague
Vogler Quartett
Wihan Quartet
Zemlinsky Quartet

Other arrangements:-

Royal Flemish Philharmonic Wind Quintet
Modern Mandolin Quartet
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Rosekrans
The Zurich Oboe Quartet

[pastoralguy]

Paavel Haas Quartet on Supraphone for me. Lovely music making.

We heard them play the last movement as an encore at their Edinburgh Festival Concert this year. The first violinist told us they had to get up at 05.00 to get an uncluttered photo off them on the Charles Bridge!

[Black Swan]

Paavel Haas Quartet on Supraphone for me. Lovely music making.

We heard them play the last movement as an encore at their Edinburgh Festival Concert this year. The first violinist told us they had to get up at 05.00 to get an uncluttered photo off them on the Charles Bridge!

Same here for me.

[Madame Suggia]

Talich Quartet on Calliope

[Barbirollians]

I like the PH Quartet very much but just find their slow movement a trifle fast - Hollywood Quartet for me on Testament a magical record .

[Don Petter]

Yup. Hollywood for me as well.

I see I have CD versions of (at least)

Budapest (original members)
Griller
Hollywood
Italiano (live)
Janacek
Portland
Royal Phil
Talich

and, in addition, on LP

Aeolian
Amadeus
Drolc
Gabrieli
Italiano (studio)
Juilliard
Prague
Smetana
Vlach

I wonder how many of these will still be available on alp's list?

[visualnickmos]

I have the Vlach and Prague as complete sets, and the Moyzes and Skampa as individuals. I particularly like the Vlach and Prague recordings.

[verismissimo]

Until, one day several years ago, we were strolling in Oakland, California, in search of Robert Louis Stevenson places, I had assumed that the N-word was nowadays unacceptable everywhere. But what was I hearing on that warm summer’s day, the streets thronged with cheerful black Americans, but that word finishing just about every sentence uttered.
It seemed somehow… unfair. Totally off-limits to white folks, but apparently commonplace among the black community. A kind of punishment – self-imposed? ‒ for past (and also present) sins.
Of course, when words become unavailable, new ones have to take their place, not necessarily quite accurately. In this quartet Dvořák is said to have included melodies he had heard from both African-Americans and from Native Americans while on vacation in Spillville, Iowa, in 1893. The writing poured out of him ‒ on the last page of the score he wrote: ‘Thank God! I am content. It went fast.’
Clearly acknowledging Dvořák’s sources of inspiration, it was called by common consent the ‘Nigger Quartet’. These days it is universally known as the ‘American’, which rather misses the point.

[gurnemanz]

When CDs came in I got the Bartók Quartet's versions of Debussy, Ravel to supplement a well-worn LP from the Quartetto Italiano. I had seen the Bartóks live a few years before and been impressed. At the time I was in cost-cutting mode with mortgage and kids and it was on the very cheap Hungaroton White label and gave good value by also including Dvorák's American. It turned out to be a favourite CD and it is still my only version of Debussy and Ravel. Only quite recently did I get another "American" - via the very good Stamitz complete box on Brilliant. Not on Alp's list but I see it is newly available as a download.

[Barbirollians]

Although it is deleted i should also put in a good word for the marvellous recording by the Delme Quartet in Pickwick .

[richardfinegold]

I have so many versions, because it frequently comes as a filler on String Quartet discs. When I actually want to hear it, I reach for the Julliard mid 1960s, on an old lp, and not on Alpiie's list.

[Don Petter]

I reach for the Julliard ...

I leave the Juilliard.

[aeolium]

Talich Quartet on Calliope

For me also, MS (though even better imv are their performances of the last two quartets, the op 105 and the op 106)

I'd particularly like to hear the Prazak and, from historic recordings, the Griller in this work.

[Don Petter]

For me also, MS (though even better imv are their performances of the last two quartets, the op 105 and the op 106)

I'd particularly like to hear the Prazak and, from historic recordings, the Griller in this work.

The Griller performance is available on the Dutton site (and probably elsewhere), c/w Bloch and Mozart:

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDBP9713

[visualnickmos]

Although it is deleted i should also put in a good word for the marvellous recording by the Delme Quartet in Pickwick .

Absolutely; and it's coupled with a fantastic recording of Brahms's Clarinet Quintet with Keith Puddy. I love this CD.

Is he (Keith Puddy) still around? I don't know anything much about him; not a name that comes up very often...