Zemlinsky Quartet - Dvorak: String Quartet No.9 Op.34, String Quartet No.13 Op.106 (2012) [SACD]

Two scores that frame the period when the composer of the famous 'American’ Quartet (No.12) was in his prime.

Combining rhythmic invention, which ennobles the natural vigour of a reinvented folklore, bright colors shaded by the importance of the viola part, and a spontaneous melodic outpouring that contrasts with the absorbing melancholy of the slow movements (sublimation of the dumka), they give voice to an astonishing feeling of love and plenitude despite a number of personal dramas that the composer had undergone. It is as though their irresistible animation formed the image of a people that was going to become a nation once again in 1918.