The Schubert Ensemble’s six-part exploration of the piano quintet repertoire concludes with a pair of contrasting Czech works. Dvořák’s Piano Quintet Op. 81 is a feast of memorable melodies and is imbued throughout with the flavour of Bohemian folk song and dance. One of the most immediately engaging and lovable quintets in the whole repertoire, it exemplifies Dvořák’s extraordinary imagination for variety and colour in his use of the instruments and for endlessly beguiling accompaniments. Composed in just six weeks in 1887, it shows the composer at his most confident and high-spirited.
Martinů’s Second Piano Quintet is seldom performed, but is also a dazzling and virtuosic work written by a composer at the height of his powers. Written in 1944 after the war had driven Martinů into a life of exile in the USA, the work reflects some of the restlessness and anxiety of that period of his life, while at the same time pulsing with the rhythmic vitality, syncopations and jazz influences that characterise the best of Martinů’s often unjustly neglected music.

The Schubert Ensemble’s highly-acclaimed ‘Behind the Notes’ sessions will explore and illuminate the lesser known work, using live performance to strip down the music and reveal its inner workings.

On Martinů’s Quintet:
‘The Schubert Ensemble capture the sparkle that comes bubbling to the surface of Martinů’s fast-cutting outer movements, whilst ensuring that the music’s darker undercurrents are also free-flowing. They negotiate Martinů’s swift changes of emotional direction with a sleight-of-hand insouciance that strikes right to the core of these elusive scores.’ Classic FM Magazine
‘The Schubert Ensemble’s performances are first-rate… Highly recommended.’ Gramophone

On Dvořák’s Quintet:
‘An unqualified delight.’ Gramophone
‘Performances that are finely honed and alert to every nuance in Dvořák’s writing’ International Record Review