The 20-year gap separating Zdenek Fibich's Quartet for violin, viola, cello, and piano in E minor of 1874 and his Quintet for violin, cello, clarinet, horn, and piano in D major of 1894 seem so large as to be insuperable. In those 20 years, the ardently earnest young man given to melancholy and fits of self-dramatization in the quartet had grown into the confidently assured mature man given to warmth and smiling optimism in the quintet. For listeners who know only Fibich's intimate piano miniatures or from his three large-scale symphonies or, unlikely but not altogether impossible, his gargantuan Czech-language melodrama Hippodamia, these two chamber works will fill in important holes in the Fibich catalog.
Unfortunately, while one can only approve the dedicated performances, one can only disapprove of Supraphon's uncharacteristically vague sound. Three members of the
Panocha Quartet plus pianist
Marian Laplsanský tear into the quartet with passion and finesse, but Supraphon's 2001 digital recording leaves them adrift in an acoustic sea, floating in and out of focus with the tides. Two members of the
Panocha plus
Laplsanský and
Ludmila Peterková and hornist Vladimira Klánská soar through the quintet with aplomb and panache, but while Supraphon's 2003 digital recording is closer and cleaner than its 2001 recording, it still moves the instruments capriciously around a vast and empty acoustic space. For those who love Fibich, this disc will be mandatory, although they may hold out hope that the works will be recorded again without spatial-acoustic distortions.