Two of the finest string sextets ever written by Slavonic composers make an excellent coupling, particularly with such a starry line-up of musicians.
Sarah Chang's warmly individual artistry is superbly matched by players drawn from the Berlin Philharmonic, past and present. These are players who not only respond to each other's artistry, but do so with the most polished ensemble and a rare clarity of inner texture, not easy with a sextet.
Souvenir de Florence is given the most exuberantly joyful performance. Written just after he had left Florence, having completed his opera, the Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky was prompted to compose one of his happiest works, one which for once gave him enormous pleasure. The opening movement's bouncy rhythms in compound time set the pattern, with the second subject hauntingly seductive in its winning relaxation, a magic moment here (track 1, 1'28").
The Adagio cantabile second movement is tenderly beautiful, with the central section sharply contrasted, while the folk-dance rhythms of the last two movements are sprung with sparkling lightness. There are now dozens of versions of this winning work in the catalogue, both for sextet and string orchestra, but none is more delectable than this.
Equally, the subtlety as well as the energy of Dvorák's Sextet is consistently brought out by Chang and her partners, with the players using a huge dynamic range down to the gentlest pianissimo.
Here, too, it just outshines the competition.