Dvořák: Piano Quartets Nos. 1 & 2

Featuring

Miguel da Silva
Omri Epstein
Mathieu van Bellen
Ori Epstein
Busch Trio
Antonín Dvořák

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Recording & Production

This album is the second recording in a four-CD series dedicated to Dvořák's complete piano trios, piano quartets, and piano quintets.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Dvořák enthusiastically described the composition of his Second Piano Quartet (Op. 87) to a friend, stating that the melodies 'surged upon me'.

Composition History

Dvořák's First Piano Quartet (Op. 23) was composed in 1875, the same year he received a grant from the Austrian State for poor artists, which allowed him to focus entirely on composition.

Composition History

Dvořák composed his First Piano Quartet (Op. 23) in just over two weeks, between May 24 and June 10, 1875, though its premiere didn't occur until December 16, 1880.

Performer Biography

The Busch Trio, formed in 2012, is named after the legendary violinist Adolf Busch, whose G.B. Guadagnini violin is played by Mathieu van Bellen, the trio's violinist.

Composer Biography

Before becoming a prominent composer in the 1870s, Dvořák was primarily known as an orchestral viola player throughout the 1860s.

Composition History

Dvořák's Second Piano Quartet (Op. 87) was written at the urging of his Berlin publisher, Fritz Simrock, who had been requesting such a work since 1885.