Another work (in fact, the first of the three) that I’m performing at the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival is Dvorak’s great E-flat major Piano Quartet. If you’re a cellist (as in the Schumann), you’re loving this piece, especially the slow movement. Dvorak doesn’t really get his due in the chamber music department. It’s rare to hear a string quartet of his other than the justifiably famous “American” quartet, with its Native American and African American influences. The Piano Quintet is likely his most performed chamber work, and it’s a great piece, to be sure – beloved by violists for its juicy solo in the Dumka movement. But this E-flat major Piano Quartet is really something special. The publisher Simrock had been encouraging Dvorak to write a second piano quartet for some time, before the composer settled down to write the E-flat in the summer of 1889, the same year – in fact, completed about 2 weeks before he started work on his Eighth Symphony (my personal favorite). The two works do share a bit of general feeling – both are sunny, vivacious works, and each has a stunningly gorgeous slow movement. Here’s a lovely performance by participants at the excellent David Finckel/Wu Han Chamber Music Studio recital:
