If you're looking for the best-performed, best-recorded, best-coupled version of Dvorák's magnificent Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, look no further. Although some might argue that the performance is too Russian, the playing of the
Borodin Quartet and
Sviatoslav Richter is so strong, so soulful, and so consummately musical that calling it too Russian because of the violinist's vibrato or
Richter's virtuosity seems pretty petty. And while some might claim that Philips' live recording from the 1982 Prague Festival is too edgy and intimate, the sound is so vital, so vivid, and so amazingly real that edgy and intimate are precisely the apt adjectives. And, of course, while some might quite reasonably point out that Dvorák's other Piano Quintet in A major Op. 5, is an exceedingly early work with little of the drama and power of the later work, even they would have to agree that the two works make ideal discmates. While old timers may have their favorite recordings of the Op. 81 Quintet -- the richly lyrical
Curzon/
Vienna Philharmonic Decca disc comes immediately to mind -- anyone who doesn't already know the work could not do better than do get to know it through this performance.