Another Vinyl Release of the Takács Quartet Due

Cover of the album being discussed (from an Amazon.com Web page)

At the beginning of this month, I wrote about Hyperion releasing a vinyl long-playing (LP) of an album of string quartets by both Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. The performance was by the Takács Quartet, and they will be releasing another such LP at the end of this month. The new release consists of two piano quintets from two different centuries. It begins in the mid-thirties of the last century with a piano quintet in A minor by Florence Price, followed by the 1887 (second) piano quintet in A major by Antonín Dvořák (his Opus 81). Once again, for those that are not enthusiastic about vinyl, the album is also available for digital download.

The Wikipedia page for Price makes it clear that Price was not only aware of Dvořák’s compositions but also probably influenced by them. One might almost say that she responded to a Czech’s reflection on American music by creating a more American perspective on the repertoire. Some might wonder whether this new album would have benefitted from “chronological ordering,” beginning with Dvořák and concluding with Price. I would disagree.

Price clearly had many influential sources; but, as an attentive listener, I would prefer that any of those influences should follow her own work on an album that includes one of her compositions. I prefer to listen to Price on her own terms. Where this new album is concerned, I would be more interested to recognize, in retrospection, any influence that Opus 81 would have had on her work. Having now listened to this album several times, I feel moderately confident that any such influence would be a weak one!