THE NORBERT WETHMAR
PIANOFORTE QUINTET:
Norbert Wethmar (violin) ; Jenny Blank (violin); John Yewe Dyer (viola) ; Bram Martin (violoncello) ;
Wilfrid Parry (pianoforte)
Dvorak's Piano Quintet was written in 1887. It is one of the finest of his chamber works : ' an absolute revelation ', says Ottokar Sourek , ' of the personality of Dvorak, a man apparently locked within himself, moving only in the sphere of divine beauty, now plunged in gloomy meditation, his vision lost in eternity, now smiling brightly, bubbling over with happiness and breaking forth in outbursts of the frankest joy. Such a spirit was Dvorak, and thus he appears in this quintet-one of the freshest and most characteristic creations of his genius '. The composer makes brilliant use of Czech dance forms, notably the ' Furiant' in the scherzo movement.