Program Note

Listeners disagree on the flavor of the A-flat Quartet, composed on both sides of the Atlantic; some claim to hear persistent American strains in it, some hear an affirmation of the composer’s Slavic roots, some just hear an expat yearning for home.

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Program Note

Dvorak’s E-flat Quartet, opus 51, is arguably the earliest of his quartets to be truly well-known and and to occupy a place in the standard repertoire, along with the C major, A-flat major, and “American” quartets. The E-flat Quartet is called the “Slavic Quartet” because of its genesis – Jean Becker of the Florentine Quartet commissioned the work, requesting a quartet “in the Slavic style”.

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