String (Bass) Quintet in G, Op. 77

In the early 1860s, nationalism surged through the cities and villages of central Europe. Hope springs eternal, they say, and peoples throughout the long-standing Austrian empire were hoping again for independence. With this political possibility came formation of various national music organizations, conservatories, and clubs whose ambition was to foster native musical traditions. Czech musician Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was just coming of age when this fervor reached Prague. He had earned his reputation to that point as one of the region’s finest viola players; he performed under the direction of both Richard Wagner and Bedřich Smetana. And when Smetana took charge of the newly-formed Umělecká beseda (National Arts Club) in 1863, Dvořák was in prime position to begin unveiling his compositional skills.
In 1875 the National Arts Club sponsored a chamber music competition, for which Dvořák composed a String Quintet in G Major. The sense of national pride may be seen by the title under which Dvořák submitted the work: “To My Country.” The Quintet originally contained five movements, alternating three fast and two slow. When his publisher Simrock suggested bringing the work to print in the late 1880s, Dvořák reined in an already prolix work by cutting the heartfelt slow Intermezzo. It was eventually published separately as a Nocturne for Strings. Because this was the only substantial change, the Quintet remains a work of Dvořák’s relative youth despite its high opus number (77).
The first movement captures Dvořák’s particular brand of chamber writing: delightful energy through dance-inspired rhythms, foot-stomping folk appeal balanced by tight motivic construction, and classical form on the lines of Beethoven and Schubert. One might point to moments of rhythmic expansion which temporarily dilute the first theme’s forward drive, a technique used to heighten the dramatic ebb and flow. It may be a fairly early work, but some passages are almost identical to the later Symphony No. 7, which give the opening movement a prescient quality. Much of the same spirit infuses the following E-major Scherzo, which for reasons of key and its songful second theme bears strong comparison to the Scherzo of Dvořák’s famous “New World” Symphony. In the slow Andante, the presence of string bass in the ensemble liberates the cello to be more melodically active than it might otherwise be. Slight changes of mode, flickering like shadows over the initial C major, anticipate more drastic modulations to come, including a broad episode in E major. The ambitious Finale incorporates aspects of sonata, rondo, and variation form. Only here does Dvořák’s youthful enthusiasm rebel against a more mature discipline and sense of proportion. Still, the whole benefits from the composer’s characteristic Bohemian inflections which generate an irresistible momentum. Clearly Dvořák’s essential stylistic profile was shaped by 1875. The judges from the Umělecká beseda awarded it first prize, citing its “noble theme, the technical mastery of the polyphonic composition, the mastery of form and . . . the knowledge of the instruments.” Their assessment still rings true.

(c) Jason Stell