We’re not exactly short on recordings of this music, but by any standard these are excellent performances. The Jerusalem Quartet plays the “American” with all of the necessary vitality and rhythmic snap. You can tell right from the viola’s peppy attack on the opening theme that all will be well. Happily, the group also floats the slow movement’s gorgeous melodies effortlessly and sets a perfect tempo for the finale’s chugging locomotive. My only quibble, both here and in the quintet, concerns a tendency in louder sections to attack the instruments so hard that the players create a percussive “click”, almost like Mahler’s “struck with the bow” sound effects. It’s unnecessary–though unlike, say, the Lindsays (ASV), whose enthusiasm degenerates into just plain ugliness as often as not, that’s never an issue here.
The performance of the Piano Quintet is equally impressive, with Stefan Vladar a fine partner to the strings. His nimble fingers in the scherzo are a delight, but the high point of the performance undoubtedly is the huge second movement, Dvorák’s largest and most profound Dumka. The ensemble plays for high drama, really digging into the sorrowful episodes and making the most of each section, but at the same time seeing to it that the music hangs together despite the wide-ranging contrasts in tempo, dynamics, and expression. Harmonia Mundi’s sonics are typically fine, and even though you probably own a few dozen performances of each work, you can add this disc to your collection with no qualms whatsoever.
