Dvořák & Price: Piano Quintets

Originally composed in the 1930s (along with another Piano Quintet in E minor), Florence Price’s Piano Quintet in A minor was a work close to her heart. She revised it early in 1952, a year before she died, but it was only discovered in 2009 among several other manuscripts stored in the attic of her by then dilapidated summer house. Takács Quartet and pianist Marc-André Hamelin bring the piece to characterful life, right from its opening, boldly stated spiritual-style melody. Hamelin, a couple of minutes into the opening track, brings just the right amount of character to the blues inflection of Price’s lyrical second theme. There’s a genuine affectionate warmth to this performance, no more in evidence than in the heartfelt, atmospheric “Andante con moto” second movement, and the infectious dance rhythms of the following “Juba”. Dvořák, effectively the godfather of America’s national music style, comes top of the bill with his radiant Piano Quintet No. 2. András Fejér’s cello sets the tone of this good-natured work, opening with one of Dvořák’s haunting melodies before his colleagues whisk the music into brisker action, followed by a soulful “Dumka”, a feather-light “Scherzo” and the thoroughly optimistic final “Allegro”.