As with the previous instalment in the Panocha Quartet’s complete Dvorak cycle for Supraphon (4/98), the total timing of the main work differs considerably from that of its DG predecessor with the Prague Quartet – 39'50'' as opposed to the latter group’s 49'29''. Even so, only in the opening movement did I feel that the Panocha’s approach erred slightly too much toward the unhelpfully hectic. Admittedly, Dvorak’s inspiration in this Allegro ma non troppo is surely too garrulous and loose-limbed for its own good, but, for all the refinement of these newcomers, I feel it’s the Prague who display the greater warmth and sympathy (and their speeds more accurately reflect the composer’s qualifying marking). As for the remainder, I now marginally prefer the Panocha. Certainly, in the Largo slow movement (whose main idea Dvorak later borrowed for the Adagio of his Sixth Symphony), the Panocha’s more flowing tempos are an asset and the players exhibit a more ingratiating expressive range and subtle finish than do their DG rivals.
The delectable Bagatelles come off very nicely, though there are other performances of greater intimacy and charm. For this piece, I still gravitate towards the Vlach Quartet’s altogether more homely reading with Miroslav Kampelsheimer (in a three-disc box). That just leaves the three-and-a-half-minute Serenade for flute, violin, viola and triangle. Dated January 26th, 1867, it is indeed, as the booklet states, a “curious” trifle, but nothing more. Recorded sound is very good. '