It will come as no surprise to longtime listeners to discover that the
Vlach Quartet's 1960 recording of Dvorák's G major String Quartet is brilliantly played, warmly lyrical, and deeply idiomatic. The
Vlach Quartet was one of Czechoslovakia's best postwar quartets and its Dvorák's Quartet recordings were wonderfully evocative of the rich musical soil of Dvorák's Bohemia. And this recording of Dvorák's last string quartet is no exception: the
Vlach sings its lines more than play them and its performance breathes like a living thing. What might come as a surprise to even longtime listeners will be to discover that the
Vlach Quartet's 1963 recording of Tchaikovsky's E flat minor String Quartet is not only brilliantly played and warmly lyrical but also, somehow, deeply idiomatic. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy would say it is their shared Slavic soul. Better yet, their performance is completely convincing, a loving interpretation of a sometimes delightful, sometimes driven, sometimes despairing work. In both the Tchaikovsky and the Dvorák, the
Vlach Quartet's recording is as good as the best ever made. Supraphon's digital remastering is immediate and realistic.