Antonín Dvořák - Piano Works (Radoslav Kvapil)

Information

Composer: Antonín Dvořák

• Complete Piano Works

Radoslav Kvapil, piano

Recorded: 1967-1973

Compilation: 2010

Label: Supraphon

https://www.supraphon.com/album/93-dvorak-piano-works

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Review

Dedicated Dvorák fans will want this four-disc set of the composer's complete piano works played by Radoslav Kvapil. Dating from the late '60s, the performances are subtle, sensitive, and played as well as one could hope. Kvapil seems to not only know the pieces, he appears to like them, and he gives each one his undivided attention and complete commitment. Dvorák was not at his best writing for the piano, and most of the music here could be best described as salon music: poetic, evocative, tender, and very small scale. Imagine Grieg's Lyric Pieces but with a bit less charm and a lot less character and you'll have some idea of what to expect. The best pieces are the later ones -- the Suite in A, Op. 98; the Humoresques, Op. 101; and the Poetic Moods, Op. 85 -- and as he does with everything here, Kvapil neither over- nor under-interprets them, but lets them speak for themselves. Whether this approach succeeds in making this music more than entertaining is up to the individual listener. Supraphon's stereo sound is perhaps too distant and possibly too boxy, but still serviceable.

-- James Leonard, AllMusic

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Antonín Dvořák (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer. He was the second Czech composer to achieve worldwide recognition, after Bedřich Smetana. Following Smetana's nationalist example, many of Dvořák's works show the influence of Czech folk music, such as his  two sets of Slavonic Dances, the Symphonic Variations, and the overwhelming majority of his songs. Dvořák wrote in a variety of forms: nine symphonies, ten operas, three concertos, several symphonic poems, serenades for string orchestra and wind ensemble, more than 40 works of chamber music, and piano music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonín Dvořák

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Radoslav Kvapil (born March 15, 1934 in Brno, Czech Republic) is a Czech pianist. As well as being a published authority on Czech piano music from all eras, Kvapil is also widely known as a sensitive and skilled pianist, most comfortable and always at his best in the music of his homeland. Kvapil made his concert debut in 1950, won the 1958 Janácek Competition, and since then has appeared around the world. In the mid-'90s he recorded eight discs of Czech solo piano music from Vorísek to Suk, and has also made recordings of Chopin, Schubert, Czech chamber music, and piano concertos. 

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/radoslav-kvapil-mn0001824010/biography

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