Dvorak, quartet can do no wrong CLASSICAL RECORDING By Fredric Koeppel koeppel@gomemphis.com Dvorak: String Quartet No. 13, Op. 106; String Quintet, Op. 97 Pacifica Quartet (with Michael Tree, viola) Cedille Records (90000 059) Would I venture to say that Dvorak can do no wrong? Well, yes, I would, at least on the basis of this album featuring two splendid works of chamber music, and, on the same basis, I'd say that the Pacifica Quartet can do no wrong either. Sometimes every factor in the composition and performing of music comes together in a glorious outburst. That's the case with these renditions of Dvorak's String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106, and String Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 97. The photograph on the liner notes, a view of old Budapest, is deceptive, because the works rendered here are among the finest that emerged from Dvorak's two sojourns in America in the early 1890s. To the composer's surprise, he fell in love with (and was a touch intimidated by) the vast American landscape and, already nurtured on the folk music of Hungary, with the folk music of America. While his most famous pieces influenced by his American experience are the Symphony No. 9 in E minor "From the New World," Op. 95, and the "American" Quartet in F major, Op. 96, the pair of works on this album represent complete realizations of Dvorak's infinitely flexible classicizing tendencies and his ability to absorb and transform the music of the common people. Unabashedly lyrical and fraught with Dvorak's intricate weaving of major and minor modes and subtle variations on themes, both quartet and quintet sparkle with tunes we can identify as related to hoedown and cake-walk and sea chanty, to black spiritual and cowboy lament; perhaps there's even a hint of American Indian rhythms in several places. Whatever the case, Dvorak incorporates such ideas and settings not to showcase them obtrusively but to lend them the serious amalgamation with European tradition he thought they deserved. Among the most joyful passages on the album, indeed in all of European music, is the fourth and final movement of the String Quintet, marked allegro giusto. Sometimes misguidedly dismissed as too frivolous a conclusion for a substantial work, this combination of soulful poetry and refreshing, exhilarating melody marks a supreme moment in the listening experience.