Often considered the greatest Czech composer of classical music, Antonin Dvorak took over from his compatriot Bedrich Smetana (1824-84,) as the music voice of a region struggling for national identity in the face of prolongued rule by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Mentored by Brahms, he was reportedly such a fanatic for newly developing train travel that he once declared that he would “gladly trade all his symphonies in order to have been the inventory of the locomotiv steam engine.”

Thankfully, this would still leave us with this great work. It is certainly the most famous of Dvorak’s string quartets, even more so after the third movement’s feature in the 2019 “Little Women” film. Written in 1893 during his visit to the United States alongside the String Quintet in Eb and the G Major Violin Sonatina, Dvorak desired all three to be “something really melodious and simple.”

The first movement, in sonata form, begins with a sunny pentatonic melody, originally for viola, but played here on the bassoon. But whilst the secondary theme (introduced by the clarinet) has a similar simplicity, the landscape that this movement presents is bound together by many sudden bursts of “storm on the prairie.”

The second movement begins with multiple similar ingredients to the first- a misty moving accompaniment is set up before a folk-like melody enters and clarifies the pulse. But this time we have more of a minor-mode nightscape, which climaxes are always quick to settle back down into more peaceful musical motion, grounded by the flowing semiquavers continuing right through from the first bar until the start of the coda. This arrangement features striking Verdi-style blending of the flute and the oboe into a single voice.

The third movement launches with four bars of pentatonic call and response as the motto theme of a fast minuet offset by beat to provide a rustic flavouring. In this version, the clarinet and flute are chosen for the deadpan beginning, of the trio section, which then erupts with almost violent rhythmic energy. The reprise of the minuet notably features bird calls which help set up the atmosphere for the finale.

The closing movement is essentially an American country “square dance,” with two introspective interludes. Once again melodies are essentially pentatonic, cementing the unity of the whole work. The coda gives the impression of the dance party spinning slightly out of control with enthusiasm, but with all remaining well.

David Walter is a French conductor, composer, oboist and arranger, with the latter two activities combined for his part in “Quintette Moragues.” His arrangement takes advantage of many of Dvorak’s motifs and melodies here working even more idiomatically for strings than for winds, notably the flute bird calls and rustic oboe sound.